Great first lines

The opening lines of any story need to be good, compelling the reader to read on whether through a strong idea, a great character or the sheer quality of the writing.

These are some of my favourites

“The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.” — William Gibson, Neuromancer

“There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.” — C. S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

“Justice? — You get justice in the next world, in this world you have the law.” — William Gaddis, A Frolic of His Own

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“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” — George Orwell, 1984

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

“The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.” — L. P. Hartley, The Go-Between

“In our family, there was no clear line between religion and fly fishing. We lived at the junction of great trout rivers in Montana, and our father was a Presbyterian minister and a fly fisherman who tied his own flies and taught others. He told us about Christ’s disciples being fishermen, and we were left to assume, as my brother and I did, that all first-class fishermen on the Sea of Galilee were fly fishermen, and that John, the favorite, was a dry-fly fisherman.” — Norman McLean, A River Runs Through It

“There was a desert wind blowing that night. It was one of those hot dry Santa Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands’ necks. Anything can happen. You can even get a full glass of beer at a cocktail lounge.” —

Raymond Chandler, Red Wind

“He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad.” — Raphael Sabatini, Scaramouche

“If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.” — J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye

John Dean