First Lines

[kaithel]

There are so many stories and novels that start with great first lines.

"Call me Ishmael."

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."

"Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins."


This is a thread to post first lines to stories or novels. What do you think would make a good start?

 

[OzoneRed]

"It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents--except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness."

--Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, Paul Clifford (1830)