Best Opening Lines
04-08-07 | 07:10 AM
#1
Thread Starter
DVD Talk Platinum Edition
Best Opening Lines
So what are your favorite opening lines to your favorite (or possibly your not-so-favorite) novels?
As a supplement to the thread, here's an online "opening lines" quiz:
Opening Lines Quiz
10/13 for me, with some correct and incorrect guesses. I actually knew about 7 or 8 of them.
-ringding-
As a supplement to the thread, here's an online "opening lines" quiz:
Opening Lines Quiz
10/13 for me, with some correct and incorrect guesses. I actually knew about 7 or 8 of them.
-ringding-
04-08-07 | 10:50 AM
#2
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From: Northern Virginia
I got 10/13 as well. I was surprised that I knew so many.
Ross Thomas wrote some of my favorite opening lines.
From Chinaman's Chance:
"It was while jogging along the beach just east of the Paradise Cove pier that Artie Wu tripped over a dead pelican, fell, and met the man with six greyhounds."
Ross Thomas wrote some of my favorite opening lines.
From Chinaman's Chance:
"It was while jogging along the beach just east of the Paradise Cove pier that Artie Wu tripped over a dead pelican, fell, and met the man with six greyhounds."
04-08-07 | 05:46 PM
#5
Mod Emeritus
9/13. Grrr.
One I've often seen cited is:
The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel...
Spoiler:
Last edited by benedict; 04-08-07 at 06:04 PM.
04-08-07 | 06:26 PM
#7
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
"The penis will be obsolete within 5 years."
John Varley's Steel Beach
7/13
I missed #8, which I checked out from the library on Thursday but havent' read yet.
John Varley's Steel Beach
7/13
I missed #8, which I checked out from the library on Thursday but havent' read yet.
04-08-07 | 10:27 PM
#9
DVD Talk Legend
Originally Posted by PalmerJoss
My all-time favorite opening line:
"The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.", taken from Stephen King's The Gunslinger
"The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.", taken from Stephen King's The Gunslinger
04-09-07 | 01:07 PM
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From: Todash
Originally Posted by PalmerJoss
My all-time favorite opening line:
"The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.", taken from Stephen King's The Gunslinger
"The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.", taken from Stephen King's The Gunslinger
Mine as well.
04-09-07 | 01:26 PM
#15
Originally Posted by PalmerJoss
My all-time favorite opening line:
"The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.", taken from Stephen King's The Gunslinger
"The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.", taken from Stephen King's The Gunslinger
04-12-07 | 04:59 AM
#16
DVD Talk Hero
11/13
"The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel."
It really jumped out at me when I first read the book.
I'm also fond of
"In a hole in the ground lived a Hobbit."
"The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel."
It really jumped out at me when I first read the book.
I'm also fond of
"In a hole in the ground lived a Hobbit."
04-13-07 | 09:57 AM
#18
I got 10/13.
04-13-07 | 04:55 PM
#19
DVD Talk Limited Edition
10/13 for me.
04-15-07 | 09:34 AM
#23
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
Originally Posted by Jadow
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
04-15-07 | 09:52 AM
#24
DVD Talk Ultimate Edition
"In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort."
...5/13...I think I need to read more...
...5/13...I think I need to read more...
04-15-07 | 10:59 AM
#25
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9/13 - I should have gotten "The drought had lasted now for ten million years, and the reign of the terrible lizards had long since ended." right, but I couldn't place it out of context. Felt like kicking myself when I read the right answer.
Here's one that always haunts me:
"The angel lay in a little thicket. It had no need of love; there was nothing anywhere in the world could startle it- we can lie here with the angel if we like; it couldn't have hurt much when they slit its throat."
-'The Journal of Albion Moonlight' by Kenneth Patchen
Here's one that always haunts me:
"The angel lay in a little thicket. It had no need of love; there was nothing anywhere in the world could startle it- we can lie here with the angel if we like; it couldn't have hurt much when they slit its throat."
-'The Journal of Albion Moonlight' by Kenneth Patchen