Great opening lines - book, song or speech

[swee'pea99]

“It was the day my grandmother exploded.”
Iain Banks, 'The Crow Road'

That's what I call hitting the ground running

 

[swee'pea99]

Sir Walter Elliot, of Kellynch Hall, in Somersetshire, was a man who, for his own amusement, never took up any book but the Baronetage; there he found occupation for an idle hour, and consolation in a distressed one; there his faculties were roused into admiration and respect, by contemplating the limited remnant of the earliest patents; there any unwelcome sensations, arising from domestic affairs changed naturally into pity and contempt as he turned over the almost endless creations of the last century; and there, if every other leaf were powerless, he could read his own history with an interest which never failed.

Jane Austen – Persuasion

 

[Beebo]

She said she was a dancer. if I believed it, it was my business

Jethro Tull. (The band, not the agriculturalist)

 

[markemark]

This program contains scenes of a sexual nature and scenes that some viewers may find disturbing.

 

[MichaelW2]

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

 

[Jameshow]

Once upon a time.....


🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

 

[MichaelW2]

Choose Life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family.

 

[swee'pea99]

Cold Comfort Farm
Stella Gibbons.

One of my all time favourites. Never fails to cheer me up.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

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

1984

Phrase appearing much earlier in 1792 book

The Female Quixote by Charlotte Lennox

 

[Seevio]

Phrase appearing much earlier in 1792 book

The Female Quixote by Charlotte Lennox

Did you quote the right post? I couldn't find anything approaching the phrase in the text.

 

[Dogtrousers]

One of my all time favourites. Never fails to cheer me up.

View attachment 807930

A favourite of mine.

I have to be honest I don't remember the opening. It was worth a re-read.

"I mun cletter the dishes" was a favourite saying of my mum.

 

[matticus]

“It was the day my grandmother exploded.”
Iain Banks, 'The Crow Road'

That's one of my favourites - and a fine novel!

He wrote some other goodies, arguably to a bit of a formula:

"I had been making the rounds of the Sacrifice Poles the day we heard my brother had escaped."

The (infamous) Wasp Factory

 

[Dogtrousers]

"Nothing to be done."


Waiting for Godot.

 

[winjim]

Hwæt

 

[Gillstay]

`My name is Brodeck and I had nothing to do with it.' Brodecks Report by Philippe Claudel. Brilliant writing, but also disturbing and wise.