What's your favorite first line?

There is the start of Trevor's 'The Story of Lucy Gault'. Lee's image-packed autobiography 'Cider With Rosie' and novels by Gaddis, Auchincloss, Oates

"if i am out of my mind, it's alright with me, thought moses herzog"

saul bellow, herzog

''Scarelt O'Hara wasn't beautiful, but men seldon realised this when they were under her charm...''

Im reading ATLAS SHRUGGED NOW. It's definately a good opening statement because it is essential to the novel as a whole. Ayn Raynd is amazing.

"Once upon a time and a very good time it was there was a moocow coming down along the road and this moocow that was coming down along the road met a nicens little boy named baby tuckoo..." A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man."

I am trying to track down the opening sentence of "Butterfly" by James M Cain. van anybody help m?

"Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again..." - Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier

Superb!

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity..."

- A Tale of Two Cities

The thousand injuries of Fortunado I had borne as best I could; but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed Revenge.

Poe's "Cask of Amontillado"

Clare: It's hard being left behind. I wait for Henry, not knowing where he is, wondering if he's okay. It's hard to be the one who stays.

-The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

It's dusk and the moon is full on a cold night three days after the meeting with the general, the towering spires of the monastery spiking through the purple sky, seeming to impale stars, planets and full constellations...

Introduction to Part 3 - Darkness Chilled of a Short Story.

In your opinion, which is the most captivating first line you've ever read?

Yours, Daizee xx

Best first line is of course from Pride and Prejudice, which is my signature :D

Here's another one which I think is quite good:

"A woman can usually get what she wants from a man if she has a well-developed figure. So I've decided to stuff four handkerchiefs into the front of my dress tomorrow; then I shall look really grown up. Actually I am grown up already, but nobody else knows that, and I don't altogether look it."
(Annemarie Selinko - Désiréé)

"Vaughan died yesterday in his last car-crash."

Crash - J.G. Ballard.

My favorite first line ever comes from Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston:

"Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others, they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time. That is the life of men.

Now women forget all those things they don't want to remember, and remember everything they don't want to forget. The dream is the truth. They act and do things accordingly"


Those are my favorite opening lines ever. What are yours?