Opening+lines

There have been some great and/or provocative opening lines to stories. Opening lines that set the scene or atmosphere, that challenge/encourage the reader to go on. Some of these lines have begun fantastic stories, other stories never quite live up to that opening. A good quote, from Australian author [|Sherryl Clark], about opening lines "What do great first lines have? A sense of place and character, even if not spelled out. A sense of tone, a smidgin of description. But very often they have a story question - a real one, not one that is trying to trick the reader."

**Examples from the Classics**:
 * It was the best of times, it was the worst of times ...... // A tale of two cities, // Charles Dickens
 * It was a pleasure to burn. // Fahrenheit 451, // Ray Bradbury
 * When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house, I had only two things on my mind........ // The outsiders, // S.E. Hinton
 * It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. // Nineteen Eighty-Four, // George Orwell
 * The drought had lasted now for ten million years, and the reign of the terrible lizards had long since ended. Here on the Equator, in the continent which would one day be known as Africa, the battle for existence had reached a new climax of ferocity, and the victor was not yet in sight. // 2001: A space odyssey, // Arthur C. Clarke
 * The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel. //Neuromancer, //William Gibson
 * All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. //Anna Karenina //, Leo Tolstoy
 * Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. //The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy //, Douglas Adams

Examples from current popular titles:
 * I found him in the garage on a Sunday afternoon. //Skellig,// David Almond
 * Joseph fixed his eyes on the coffin and thought of silkworms. //The running man,// Michael Gerards Bauer
 * We went to the moon to have fun, but the moon turned out to completely suck. //Feed,// M.T. Anderson
 * The boy with the dreadlocks had two lines of business: (cars and the patio trade). //Exposure,// Mal Peet
 * Henry got up early on the day that changed his life. //Faerie Wars//, Herbie Brennan
 * I was five when I first saw the future. (Now I am seventeen.) //The foreshadowing,// Marcus Sedgwick
 * It is a relatively little-known fact, that, over the course of a single year, about twenty million letters are delivered to the dead. //The Lollypop shoes,// Joanne Harris
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The worst night of my life? My first - and last - date with Angela O'Bannon. //Son of the mob,// Gordon Korman
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">We are all around you. (You don't think about us much because we are invisible.) //So yesterday//, Scott Westerfeld
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The early summer sky was the colour of cat vomit. //Uglies,// Scott Westerfeld
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">After a year of hunting, I finally caught up with Sarah //Peeps//, Scott Westerfeld
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">It's hot as hell in Martirio, but the papers on the porch are icy with the news.//Vernon God Little,// DBC Pierre
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">It was the day my grandmother exploded. //The Crow Road,// Iain Banks
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">It was 7 minutes after midnight. The dog was lying on the grass in the middle of the lawn in front of Mrs Shears' house. Its eyes were closed. //The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime,// Mark Haddon
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The letter that would change everything arrived on a Tuesday. //The unlikely pilgrimage of Harold Fry//, Rachel Joyce
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">It was a beautiful day. It was a beautiful field. Except for the body. //I hunt killers// Barry Lyga