Opening Line Quotes

“It began as a mistake.”
― Charles Bukowski, Post Office

“I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills.”
― Isak Dinesen, Out of Africa

“Frankly, just between you and me, I'm ending up even worse than I started...”
― Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Castle to Castle

“Neither of the Grimes sisters would have a happy life, and looking back it always seemed that the trouble began with their parents’ divorce.”
― Richard Yates, The Easter Parade

“It's a weirdly subtle conversation, I almost don't notice I'm being blackmailed.”
― Becky Albertalli, Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda

“Mercury Dawn Walker stepped out of the green mist that floated around her body. She was perfecting the art of walking from dimension to dimension”
― Donna White, Enchanted Forests

“Bible in one hand, pistol in the pistol in the other, the preacher sat astride a horse, his voice lifted to God’s light and a clear sky.”
― Charles Cordell, God's Vindictive Wrath

“I never thought I'd have a story worth telling, at least not one about me.”
― Perry Moore , Hero

“The sweet, spicy fragrance of Madame Alfred Carriere roses wrapped itself around Alexandra as if she were in the comfort of her mother's arms.”
― Ellen Read, The Feathered Nest

“To release the tension in her chest, Miray took a big breath of the warm midsummer air. After the morning thunderstorm, it was filled with the sweet aroma of cedar trees and the earthy scent of moss. This old forest was the only place where she could be herself, never rejecting her as people did. Its leafy arms were always open.”
― Elena Shelest, Enchanted Forests

“I know Mother and Father were so happy for me today at the church—St Andrew’s Church here in Charlbury. Though why they should be, I don’t understand. I had met Sir Giles Lacey only a few times before today at our wedding. One of those times was at our betrothal. The time before that was when he’d proposed and then when we’d stay at Lacey Hall in the days preceding our marriage. I’d
implored Mother not to allow the wedding to proceed, told her that I loathed the man.”
― Ellen Read, The Ghost Rider

“The binoculars in my hands were stolen.”
― Kyoko M., The Starlight Contingency

“I was in the closet... with Tamera Muncie.”
― Bill Konigsberg, Out of the Pocket

“Today was the day. Today our routines were different; today we would know our place in the world.”
― Kaylie Fowler

“Thomas Wazhashk removed his thermos from his armpit and set it on the steel deck alongside his scuffed briefcase.”
― Louise Erdrich, The Night Watchman

“There was a wall. It did not look important. It was built of uncut rocks roughly mortared.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin

“We came on the wind of the carnival.”
― Joanne Harris, Chocolat

“Ryanna Raines: "It is better to risk saving a guilty person than to condemn an innocent one.”
― L.R. Dorn, With a Kiss We Die

“Mr. Arnold Waite—husband, parent, man of his word—invariably leaned back in his chair after his second cup of breakfast coffee and looked with some disbelief at his wife and two children.”
― Shirley Jackson, Hangsaman

“The scream cut through the jungle like a sharpened machete and brought a wave of fear crashing over the boy’s body. He had never felt terror like this before.”
― Jamie Baptie

“Some Sunday nights, you should go to sleep and not wake up until Tuesday.”
― Jill MacLean, The Nine Lives of Travis Keating

“A horse that kicks can kill anyone near its hind legs. A stable hand, a groom, a coachman, or a care-less owner will risk their lives if struck by the animal’s lightning-fast speed and power”
― Cecelia Tichi, A Gilded Drowning Pool

“In the beginning, there was no pattern to the sacrifice, merely one more thing to clean up after a long, hard day—no reason to believe that I’d brought this upon myself. (Repent)”
― Richard Thomas, Spontaneous Human Combustion

“The first time they come to measure my son, he is only eleven years old. (From Within)”
― Richard Thomas, Spontaneous Human Combustion

“I haven't always been a pain in the ass.”
― Richard Plourde, Back to You...: A Novel About Second Chances and Redemption

“The twenty-first century started with a bang on September 11, 2001.”
― Peter Thiel, The Straussian Moment

“We found hell in a beautiful neighborhood.”
― David Goggins, Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds

“Some sounds can be both triggering and exciting at the same time.
For Lorelei, that was the sound of her email notification.”
― Laney Williams, His #1 Fan

“When the world found out the fae existed, everything went to shit. Pardon my French.”
― Hannah Levin, The Treasured One

“Call me, Ishmael.”
― Peter De Vries, The Vale of Laughter