huntingtonb

Once upon a time, there was a woman who discovered she had turned into the wrong person.
- Anne Tyler, Back When We were Grownups

Lewa

'I'm the vampire Lestat, remember me?'

Queen of the damned - anne rice

Banzai

'Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday, I don't know.' -The Outsider, by Albert Camus.

We did it in English, and spent the first three lessons going over the importance of this as a first line. In the English and French translations. And yet I still don't hate it as much as I hate The Great Gatsby.

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"Who is the third who walks always beside you?
When I count, there are only you and I together
But when I look ahead up the white road
There is always another one walking beside you"
-"The Wasteland" by T.S. Elliot

ProudestMonkey

"Polly cut off her hair in front of the mirror, feeling slightly guilty about not feeling very guilty about doing so." - Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett

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People walk around pushing back their debts,
Wearing paychecks like necklaces and bracelets,
Talking ‘bout nothing, not thinking ‘bout death,
Every little heartbeat, every little breath.

Gres

Yall listed some great ones. I couldn't stop laughing at the first sentence to Hitchhiker's Guide. What great stuff that is.
Here are mine:

"The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again."
The Eye of the World, Book One of The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan
That was a great series for me. It was my first venture into fantasy. He is a fantastic writer. And that line is the most appropriate beginning to the series.

And here is one more. I could not resist.
"'Who is John Galt?'"
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

L.A.Matthews

I'm so glad someone mentioned that! It's probably my favourite opening to all the books I've read.

Here's a good one:

As usual, at five o'clock that morning reveille was sounded by the blows of a hammer on a length of rail hanging up near the staff quarters. The intermittent sound barely penetrated the window-panes on which the frost lay two fingers thick, and they ended almost as soon as they'd begun.

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

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assassin

Got there before me. Love this one and unless I've remembered wrong, it's in every Wheel of Time book. Okay, so I'ma WoT fan.

This was the first McCaffrey book I ever read and it certainly got me.

Okay, my turn:

"In defense of Althalus, it should be noted that he was in very tight financial circumstances and more than a little tipsy when he agreed to undertake the theft of the Book." - The Redemption of Althalus by David and Leigh Eddings

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Your friendly, forum lurker.

Johnna

I absolutely love the Wheel of Time openings. (I'm a big fan, too. )

"Once upon a time, there was a prostitute named Maria. [Wait a minute. 'Once upon a time' is how all the best children's stories begin and 'prostitute' is a word for adults. How can I start a book with this apparent contradiction? But since, at every moments of our lives, we all have one foot in a fairy tale and the other in the abyss, let's keep that beginning.]"

--Eleven Minutes by Paulo Coelho

I love Coelho's work in general and Eleven Minutes in particular.

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~Kouryuu~

"Taran wanted to make a sword; but Coll, charged with the pratical side of his education, decided on horseshoes." - The Book of Three (from the Chronicles of Prydain series) by Lloyd Alexander.

"Everything starts somewhere, although many physicists disagree." - The Hogfather - Terry Pratchett.

"Sam Vimes sighed when he heard the scream, but he finished shaving before he did anything about it." - Night Watch - Terry Pratchett.

"'Once upon a time,' said the big fat farmer, 'it was all fields around here.'
The traveller glanced all around and about. 'It's still all fields,' said he." - The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse - Robert Rankin

"Death was hiding in Kaspar's pocket." - The resurrection casket (Doctor Who series) by Justin Richards.

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CatchyUsername

"Mommy, do you think daddy wants to die?" Evan Blaylock asked his mother, Jessie.

***First line from the novel I'm currently writing.

Sorry, everyone posted all of the good ones by now.

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~Art is the lie that enables us to realize the truth~ Pablo Picasso

Kyrie

One thing was certain, that the white kitten had had nothing to do with it-- it was the black kitten's fault entirely. ~ Through the looking-glass and what Alice found there, Lewis Carroll

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Lady_Kristin

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cryptika

"Ten days after the war ended, my sister Laura drove a car off a bridge."

- The Blind Assassin, Margaret Atwood

Heid

"I wasn't there when I died." Nobody True - James Herbert

Rahvin

"Describe, using diagrams where apropriate, the exact circumstances of your death"

From Red Dwarf

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