Here are two of my favorites I CALL our world Flatland, not because we call it so, but to make its nature clearer to you, my happy readers, who are privileged to live in Space. Edwin Abbott Abbott, Flatland. The great fish moved silently through the night water, propelled by short sweeps of its crescent tail. Peter Benchley, Jaws. I think both set the tone perfectly for the stories they end up telling and capture my attention immediately. I have another, which is technically two sentences, but I think perfectly sets up the world shattering view that it outlined. When on board H.M.S. Beagle, as naturalist, I was much struck with certain facts in the distribution of the inhabitants of South America, and in the geological relations of the present to the past inhabitants of that continent. These facts seemed to me to throw some light on the origin of species -- that mystery of mysteries, as it has been called by one of our greatest philosophers. Charles Darwin, On Origin of Species.
"We met Jesus on the streets of Toledo" was a first sentence to an article in the german newspaper "Der Spiegel"
One of my all time favorite first lines: How many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man? Bob Dylan, Blowing in the Wind.
"Once you get over the irony, killing a man in his own health club has much to commend it" Barry Eisler Hard Rain (also published as blood from blood) "Some concepts are alien to the Glaswegian mind , salad, dentistry, forgiveness." Craig Russel The Long Glasgow Kiss
