Just like the first scene in an unforgettable movie, the first word or sentence to a story can truly grab your attention and not let go until the last sentence. Here are ten of my favorite opening lines.
1. “Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday; I can’t be sure.”
The Stranger by Albert Camus
2. “Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul.”
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
3. “Lydia is dead. But they don’t know this yet.”
Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
4. “The Man in Black fled across the desert, and the Gunslinger followed.”
The Gunslinger by Stephen King
5. “It was a pleasure to burn.”
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
6. “My father is gone. I’m slouched in a cast-aluminum chair across from two men, one the manager of the hotel we’re staying and the other a policeman. They’re both waiting for me to explain what’s become of him, my father.”
The Dew Breaker by Edwidge Danticat
7. “One day, I was already old, in the entrance of a public place a man came up to me.”
The Lover by Marguerite Duras
8. “There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.”
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis
9. “It began the usual way, in the bathroom of the Lassimo Hotel.”
A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
10. “As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a monstrous vermin” – Franz Kafka, Metamorphosis
Vincent Salera
Founder @ World's Best Story™ amplifier of creativity & fun!
