First lines that you like

"I, Lucifer, Fallen Angel, Prince of Darkness, Bringer of Light, Ruler of Hell, Lord of the Flies, Father of Lies, Apostate Supreme, Tempter of Mankind, Old Serpent, Prince of This World, Seducer, Accuser, Tormentor, Blasphemer, and without a doubt Best Fuck in the Seen and Unseen Universe (ask Eve, that minx) have decided - oo-la-la! - to tell all"

... I'm kind of easy to amuse.

EDIT: Nevermind.

edited 19th Jun '11 2:54:49 PM by zombielovescore

Not from books, but some poetry lines:

"Everyone forgets that Icarus also flew."

"To see a World in a grain of sand / And a Heaven in a wild flower / Hold Infinity in the palm of you hand / And Eternity in an hour."

"Never seek to tell thy love / love that never told can be."

"O make me a mask and a wall to shut from your spies."

"In all the world, one man has been born, one man has died."

"It was the day my grandmother exploded."

(The Crow Road, Iain Banks.)

It's already been mentioned but I'll second it:

"It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen."

(1984, George Orwell.)

Because it works on a few different levels. Like Blue Violet, I haven't actually read it (yet), but I intend to.

—>It is an ancient mariner, and he stoppeth one of three.
"By thy long grey beard and withering eye, wherefore stoppest thou me?"

Who talks like that? Anyway, it's The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

edited 21st Jun '11 2:25:54 PM by DougSMachina

A way a lone a last a loved a long the riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs. - Finnegans Wake by James Joyce

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

Haloes! Haleskarth! Contraband! I can walk away from anything. Only Revolutions by Mark Z Danielewski

Samsara! Samarra! Grand! I can walk away from anything. Only Revolutions by Mark Z Danielewski

edited 27th Jun '11 11:14:02 PM by Usipeus

A befuddling muddle as Finnegans Wake might be, "from swerve of shore to bend of bay" is indeed a fine line.

edited 28th Jun '11 1:04:30 PM by Korodzik

"It was love at first sight." Catch-22

"Moon , Glorious Moon." Darkly Dreaming Dexter.

"It was a pleasure to burn."

And now a dump from books that I haven't read:

"To say that I met Nicholas Brisbane over my husband’s dead body is not entirely accurate. Edward, it should be noted, was still twitching upon the floor."

“London. Michaelmas term lately over, and the Lord Chancellor sitting in Lincoln’s Inn Hall. Implacable November weather. As much mud in the streets as if the waters had but newly retired from the face of the earth, and it would not be wonderful to meet a Megalosaurus, forty feet long or so, waddling like an elephantine lizard up Holborn Hill.”

"Penises. Everywhere."

"She was willing to die, of course, but she had not planned to do it so soon."

“Once upon a time, there was a woman who discovered she had turned into the wrong person.”

"Prince Raoden of Arelon awoke early that morning, completely unaware that he had been damned for all eternity."

edited 29th Jun '11 1:27:58 AM by Kizor

I was hoping I'd be the first to post this:

When Mr. Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would shortly be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday with a party of special magnificence, there was much talk and excitement in Hobbiton.

The opening of Steinbeck's Cannery Row:

"Cannery Row in Monterey in California is a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream."

Abomination!

More of a paragraph than a line, but the start of Backup in Backup:

Let’s get something clear right up front. I’m not Harry Dresden. Harry’s a wizard. A genuine, honest-to-goodness wizard. He’s Gandalf on crack and an IV of Red Bull, with a big leather coat and a .44 revolver in his pocket. He’ll spit in the eye of gods and demons alike if he thinks it needs to be done, and to hell with the consequences—and yet somehow my little brother manages to remain a decent human being. I’ll be damned if I know how. But then, I’ll be damned regardless. My name is Thomas Raith, and I’m a monster.

Great choice. I love Steinbeck and that is a brilliant opening line.

Yes. From the very first line of Cannery Row, I knew I'd love the book.

I second the opening line of every Wheel of Time novel. It's awesome.

This is not the opening line of a book, but "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away" just has to be mentioned.

"In June there was a blizzard." This is actually not the opening line of a book, but of a story/chapter of "Sideways Stories from Wayside School", a series I adored as a kid and still find hilarious today.

"It rained frogs the day the White Council came to town".

"I've watched through his eyes, I've listened through his ears, and I tell you he's the one. Or at least as close as we're going to get."

- Enders Game

edited 30th Jun '11 10:15:54 PM by TotemicHero

"It was a dark and stormy night."

I didn't like the book but that was a cool line.

"It was thirteen minutes short of midnight". - Spade and Archer

edited 2nd Jul '11 7:02:34 PM by PerfectltyABNormal

Kind of cheating but:

"Life is about the stories. Stories that came to us at night from our fathers as we listened in drowsy anticipation. Stories we read in dog-eared books on the lazy afternoons that turn into warm summer nights. Childhood is a time of wonder and exploration, a gathering of fairy tales and myths that grow with us into adulthood and there it lingers in the back of the mind, silent but strong as an oak and with deeper roots. Stories have a lingering power."

-An Oath of Thieves

Another of the Sideways Stories From Wayside School is "It was purple."

One of the Bunnicula books gives us "It was not a dark and stormy night. In fact, it was a bright and sunny day." The series also gives us one of the best titles of all time: The Celery Stalks at Midnight.

edited 4th Jul '11 10:19:13 AM by jewelleddragon

"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."

And I'm surprised this one wasn't mentioned yet:

"It was a nice day. All the days had been nice. There had been rather more than seven so far, and rain hadn't been invented yet."

"Notice: Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot."

Assuming that counts as a line. If it doesn't, "You don't know about me, without you have read a book by the name of 'The Adventures of Tom Sawyer', but that ain't no matter." is pretty good too.

I'll Nth the Dresden Files opening, and add one from a book that I must dig out at some point-

"Early one June morning in 1872 I murdered my father—an act which made a deep impression on me at the time." - Ambrose Bierce, An Imperfect Conflagration

I wonder what's bothering the chickens *