top of page
You Had Me At Chapter 1
Top 20 Opening Lines To Novels
“I write this sitting in the kitchen sink.”
I Capture The Castle,
Dodie Smith
“Once upon a time...”
Grimm’s Fairy Tales,
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
“Call me Ishmael.”
Moby-Dick,
Herman Melville
“Someone was looking at me, a disturbing sensation if you’re dead.”
A Certain Slant of Light,
Laura Whitcomb
“There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.”
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader,
C. S. Lewis
“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.”
The Hobbit,
J.R.R. Tolkien
“The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.”
The Go-Between,
L.P. Hartley
“All children, except one, grow up.”
Peter Pan,
J.M. Barrie
“It was the day my grandmother exploded.”
The Crow Road,
Iain Banks
“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen”
1984,
George Orwell
“If you are interested in stories with happy endings, you would be better off reading some other book.”
A Series of Unfortunate Events,
Lemony Snicket / Daniel Handler
“This is my favorite book in all the world, though I have never read it.”
The Princess Bride,
William Goldman
“Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board.”
Their Eyes Were Watching God,
Zora Neale Hurston
“Mother died today.”
The Stranger,
Albert Camus
“It was a pleasure to burn.”
Fahrenheit 451,
Ray Bradbury
“On those cloudy days, Robert Neville was never sure when sunset came, and sometimes they were in the streets before he could get back.”
I Am Legend,
Richard Matheson
“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
“Once upon a time, there was a woman who discovered she had turned into the wrong person.”
Back When We Were Grownups,
Anne Tyler
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...”
A Tale of Two Cities,
Charles Dickens
“Every summer Lin Kong returned to Goose Village to divorce his wife, Shuyu.”
Waiting,
Ha Jin
“I am an invisible man.”
Invisible Man,
Ralph Ellison
bottom of page