# Post great last lines of stories you love. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 29, 2010, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789 "2010-04-29T21:05:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![In\_Winnipeg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a8b319/32.png) [@In\_Winnipeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/In_Winnipeg)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2010, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789/21 "2010-04-29T23:57:56Z")
“_Juno was a man!_” – _Vengeance Is Mine_, Mickey Spillane. ---
**Author:** ![Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maggie_the_Ocelot)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2010, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789/22 "2010-04-30T00:01:33Z")
How about plays? MARGARET: Oh, you weak, beautiful people who give up with such grace. What you need is someone to take hold of you – gently, with love, and hand your life back to you, like something gold you let go of – I do love you, Brick, I do. BRICK: Wouldn’t it be funny if that were true? ---
**Author:** ![sevenwood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@sevenwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sevenwood)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2010, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789/23 "2010-04-30T00:03:18Z")
I don’t remember much about the story except that it was a sci-fi story in (I believe) an old Analog magazine. The story claimed to be an attempt at translating some alien chronicles concerning an alien ship’s encounter with humans. The intro to the story pointed out that many of the alien terms didn’t appear to have an exact translation, and that in those cases approximate translations for those words were put in parentheses. For instance, the term (he) where it was not certain of the gender or even numerical quantity of the entity in question. The writer was referred to as (I) and his/her/their compatriot(s) was referred to as (Smith). The alien(s) started out as cold, logical entit(ies), but changed gradually (with the number of words he/she/they used in parentheses slowly increasing) as they interacted with the humans. The final paragraph of the story was: (I) (feel) (good), (Smith). (I) (like) (you). ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2010, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789/24 "2010-04-30T00:30:55Z")
“I have no mouth and I must scream.” –Harlan Ellison “I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was 12 - Jesus, did you?” –Stephen King, in The Body ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2010, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789/25 "2010-04-30T00:46:14Z")
“ast illi soluuntur frigore membra uitaque cum gemitu fugit indignata sub umbras.” ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2010, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789/26 "2010-04-30T00:52:45Z")
“Boy, I’m glad all that supernatural stuff is over,” said the bat. -_Island of the Sequined Love Nun_, by Christopher Moore ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2010, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789/27 "2010-04-30T00:55:45Z")
“They unlocked the door, slowly, and let Margot out.” The Lottery by Ray Bradbury. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2010, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789/28 "2010-04-30T01:02:10Z")
> [@](#): > > For although nepenthe has calmed me, I know always that I am an outsider; a stranger in this century and among those who are still men. This I have known ever since I stretched out my fingers to the abomination within that great gilded frame; stretched out my fingers and touched _a cold and unyielding surface of polished glass._ _The Outsider_, H.P. Lovecraft. > [@](#): > > My opinion of my whole experience varies from time to time. In broad daylight, and at most seasons I am apt to think the greater part of it a mere dream; but sometimes in the autumn, about two in the morning when the winds and animals howl dismally, there comes from inconceivable depths below a damnable suggestion of rhythmical throbbing …and I feel that the transition of Juan Romero was a terrible one indeed. _The Transition of Juan Romero_, H.P. Lovecraft. > [@](#): > > It glowed in the depths of space like a searing beacon—beautiful and defiant, yet somehow forlorn and lost—a glorious diadem marking the trackless graves of the men and women of TFNS Defender who had died to save an Earth not even their own. It grew and expanded as they watched, and then, as suddenly as it had appeared, it was gone, snuffed by the breath of eternity, and Richard Aston felt his wife sob against his shoulder, weeping for her dead at last. _The Apocalypse Troll_, David Weber. > [@](#): > > “So now what?” Saint-Just demanded. “A big show trial before the execution? Proof of my ‘crimes’ for the Proles and the newsies?” > > “No,” the citizen admiral said softly. “I think we’ve had enough of those sorts of trials.” > His hand rose with Saint-Just’s pulser, and the Citizen Chairman’s eyes widened as the muzzle aligned with his forehead at a meter’s range. > > “Good-bye, Citizen Chairman.” _Ashes of Victory_, David Weber. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2010, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789/29 "2010-04-30T01:07:54Z")
Still waiting to hear about the typo in the OP. ---
**Author:** ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2010, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789/30 "2010-04-30T01:19:07Z")
I meant, “All Summer in a Day”. I loved the Lottery too, though. I like short stories. Short attention span, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2010, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789/31 "2010-04-30T01:35:23Z")
“‘Darling,’ it said.” Stephen King, _Pet Sematary_ ---
**Author:** ![norinew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb9ed0/32.png) [@norinew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/norinew)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2010, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789/32 "2010-04-30T01:48:13Z")
“Ladyfingers; they taste just like ladyfingers” Dr. Pine in _Survivor Type_, Stephen King ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2010, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789/33 "2010-04-30T02:32:47Z")
“The leader and I by that hidden way entered to return to the bright world; and without care for having any rest we climbed up, he first and I second, so far that I saw some of the beautiful things that heaven bears, through a round opening; and thence we came forth to see again the stars.” - Dante’s _Inferno_ “From that most holy wave I now returned to Beatrice; remade, as new trees are renewed when they bring forth new boughs, I was pure and prepared to climb unto the stars.” - Dante’s _Purgatorio_ “But already my desire and my will were being turned like a wheel, all at one speed, by the Love which moves the sun and the other stars.” - Dante’s _Paradiso_ ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2010, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789/34 "2010-04-30T02:35:18Z")
It was as if the shame of it should outlive him. - Kafka, _The Trial_ ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2010, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789/35 "2010-04-30T02:53:09Z")
“Overhead, without any fuss, the stars were going out.” - “The Nine Billion Names of God” ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2010, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789/36 "2010-04-30T02:57:17Z")
Yes, he had been wrong about Shiloh. Shiloh isn’t haunted - men are haunted. Shiloh doesn’t care. - Thomas Harris, _Red Dragon_ ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2010, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789/37 "2010-04-30T03:05:40Z")
If you want to imagine the future, imagine a boy and his dog and his friends. And a summer that never ends. And if you want to imagine the future, imagine a boot… no, imagine a sneaker, laces trailing, kicking a pebble; imagine a stick, to poke at interesting things, and throw for a dog that may or may not decide to retrieve it; imagine a tuneless whistle, pounding some luckless popular tune into insensibility; imagine a figure, half angel, half devil, all human… Slouching hopefully towards Tadfield… …forever. - Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, _Good Omens_ ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2010, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789/38 "2010-04-30T03:08:18Z")
[Here’s](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=415316) an old thread on this subject. Some good stuff there, some already mentioned here. ---
**Author:** ![Maiira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Maiira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maiira)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2010, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789/39 "2010-04-30T03:31:29Z")
> [@Nzinga\_Seated](#): > > I meant, “All Summer in a Day”. I loved the Lottery too, though. I like short stories. Short attention span, I guess. Heh. I was just about to say, The Lottery ends with this: > [@](#): > > “It isn’t fair, it isn’t right,” Mrs. Hutchinson screamed, and then they were upon her. Which is also my response to the thread. Because I, too, enjoyed The Lottery. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2010, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789/40 "2010-04-30T03:39:09Z")
I have come to . . . – **Dhalgren** by Samuel R. Delaney. ’ . . . the assembled birthday party guests shouted, ‘surprise’" Fredric Brown, “Nightmare in Yellow” “B’dikkat, leaving everyone else, jogged with his bottle across the plain to give the mountain-man Alverez an especially large gift of delight” – “A Planet Named Shayol,” Cordwainer Smith. “Parazianski” – “Scanners Live in Vain,” Cordwainer Smith. “Click!” – “The Twonky” by Henry Kuttner “My eyes were moist, but I think it was just the wind” – “Playmates” by Chuck Rothman [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-great-last-lines-of-stories-you-love/537789.md?page=3)