Technically two lines, but "The story so far: In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."

"Szeth-son-son-Vallano, Truthless of Shinovar, wore white on the day he was to kill a king"

“I would have lived in peace. But my enemies brought me war.” - Darrow of Lycos

'It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.'

There are so many great lines but two come to mind, 1. The wheel of time turns... 2. Ash fell from the sky.

"All children except one grow up." - Peter Pan "All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way” - Anna Karenina

My favorite is, "Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice," from One Hundred Years of Solitude

The man in black fled across the desert and the Gunslinger followed. Best opening line in my opinion. Name of the Wind has the best opening sequence, but Dark Tower first sentence takes the cake.

Every time someone talks about good first lines, I cannot help but bring up One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez. A brilliantly written book with an amazing opening line: “Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.” The amount of time-hopping that is done just within this first line is astounding. The whole novel is captured in this sentence, with its circular history and ties of past and future, its sense of nostalgia its contrast between peaceful past and horrific war-torn now. Even that apathetic, even casual description of horrific events, that is everywhere in the book, is here. In the original language, there is apparently also a contrast between “fire” in the “firing squad”, and “ice”. Love this book, love this sentence. A must read for anyone who loves literature.

My favorite first line is, “As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into an enormous insect.” - The Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka

“Weary, I walk upon flowers at the head of an army.” Is the only opening line I can remember in any book I’ve ever read. Goes so hard. Iron Gold, Pierce Brown.

Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson has a great opening, but you need the first few lines, not just the very first: "No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against the hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone.”

The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.

In a village of La Mancha, the name of which I have no desire to call to mind… As a Spanish viewer, I have to mention Don Quijote.

"One can not raise walls against what has been forgotten" R. Scott Bakker A Darkness that Comes Before.

"close only counts in horseshoes and handgrenades". This quote made me truly laugh out loud and I will write a book starting with this line to make sure it ends up in a gaurdians article someday

"The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel."

"Captain Crozier comes up on deck to find his ship under attack by celestial ghosts." was the best first line I've read recently. Its the first line of The Terror by Dan Simmons

The building was on fire and it wasnt my fault! Harry Dresden blood rites

“It was night again. The Waystone Inn lay in silence, and it was a silence of three parts.” The Name of The Wind - Patrick Rothfuss

The man in Black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed

"Its harder to drive a polar bear into somebody's living room than you think. First, you need a living room window that's big enough to fit a car. You need a car big enough to fit a polar bear. And you need a polar bear that's big enough to not point out your errors. Like the fact you've driven into the wrong house. Which, when it comes to cars in living rooms, is bad. I should back up. (The story. Not the car.) - Timmy Failure, Mistakes Were Made.

"The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed." The Gunslinger by Stephen King

„Now these ashes have grown cold, we open the old book.“ Gardens of the Moon, Steven Erikson

It is important, when killing a nun, to ensure that you bring an army of sufficient size.

Abdominal

4:55 is why I loved this channel

personal favorite: Szeth-son-son-Vallano, Truthless of Shinovar, wore white on the day he was to kill a king. The way of kings- Brandon Sanderson

Yeah Perfume is indeed a very good book. Had to read it in highschool.

I think the opening paragraph of Hill House deserves to be on the list of greatest opening paragraphs of all time. I reread that so much, even sometimes just walking past my bookshelf I'll pull it out if I need to feel that impact. But, I can see how the opening line alone might not.

For me, it's got to be Darkfever. The line is memorable enough that I can easily bring it to mind. My philosophy is pretty simple - any day nobody's trying to kill me is a good day in my book. I haven't had many good days lately. Of course the most famous first page is probably Pride and Prejudice.

AAAAH HE DID SCREW UP!!!! I had the same reaction. 😂

One of my favorite first lines is, “The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.”

"It was madness to rob the grave of a green bone." -Fonda Lee. The amount of dread that I felt when I first read this line. Technically this is two lines but I really love it.😂 " Light rapidly faded away as the darkness began to swallow him. Hajime Nagumo's face twisted and terror as he stared at the vanishing light above him." -Ryo Shirakome

I haven't finished the video yet. But im throwing my favorite in here. "The galaxy is a dumpster fire." Anspach and Cole. Galaxies Edge, book 1, Legionnaire.

“Limp, the body of Gorrister hung from the pink palette; unsupported-hanging high above us in the computer chamber; and it did not shiver in the chill, oily breeze that blew eternally through the main cavern.”

The Hill House line got me thinking about the difference between opening lines vs opening paragraphs. The opening line is okay, but I think the entire opening paragraph is a classic. Another one of my favorite openings has a pretty flat opening line. "Mother died today." But if you take the opening paragraph, it completely changes what you feel going into the story. "Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday, I don't know." I'm sure there's a lot more like that.

dude on the right really sold line 9. Well done!

"I'm pretty much f*cked." - The Martian

“I’m not typically one to get lost in the moment, but here I feel there is only the moment to behold.”

The light of that murdered sun still burns me. ~ Empire of Silence

Whatever one thinks of the first line, Razorblade Tears is an amazing book, and Cosby maybe the best thriller-edged noir writer today. Would recommend to fantasy fans looking to expand genre horizons.

Wholesome page

Hahahahahaha that first line had me rolling!

Line 10 isn't saying Lin Kong is returning to the village and every time he divorces his wife. It's saying he's going to the village with the INTENT to do so. Just a little clarification there.

I’m not sure Richard understood this was best FIRST lines. He kept saying “best lines in fiction”

I literally just went to goodreads to look up the 'line 5' book.

"They shoot the white girl first." has more questions in my mind. #1 Who else is getting shot? #2 Who are they? #3 Why is she getting shot? #4 how many people will be shot besides her

Guardian has some explaining to do.

"It was a dark and stormy night and the clocks were stricking thirteen as the drugs began to take hold".

Quick question, have you read the first line from The Book that Wouldn't Burn by Mark Lawrence ? Because there is something to discuss here 😬

The opening from The Wheel of Time sounds a WHOLE LOT like the opening from Lord of the Rings.

That last line was the best! I actually wan't to read the book now.

"From the murky depths of madness, reality churns and boils over me; a great distance away." And the first chapter ends with, "We are all the bastard children of this universe; and I, Dr. Marcus Dror, am the worst of us." Eve: The Empyrean Age by Tony Gonzalez

Perfume is legit good

Let's start with the end of the world, why don't we? Get it over with and move on to more interesting things. From The Fifth Season. I remember reading the first page and knowing I'd be reading the whole trilogy

“The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.” I noticed several people already put this one in here, and for good reason!

"It was hell’s season, and the air smelled of burning children." -Gone South by Robert McCammon

"Let's start with the end of the world, why don't we?" - "The Fifth Season" by N. K. Jemisin "When we were eight, Dad cut me open from throat to stomach." - "Once There Were Wolves" by Charlotte McConaghy

I'm disappointed the first line of Fight Club didnt make this list... "Tyler gets me a job as a waiter, after that Tyler's pushing a gun in my mouth and saying, the first step to eternal life is you have to die."

This list doesn't have any of the best first lines lol. Here's a legit great: "All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

“Blood leaves no stain on a Warden's grey cloak." - Poven Guilty (Dresden files) "It rained toads the day the White Council came to town." - Summer Knight (Dresden files)

The wheel of time quote always reminds me of the Galadrian quote from the film :D I wonder if they were riffing off WoT “And some things that should not have been forgotten were lost. History became legend. Legend became myth. And for two and a half thousand years, the ring passed out of all knowledge.”

no george orwell? "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen."

To me one of the best first line is Camus’ « The Stranger » : Today, Mom died. Or Yesterday maybe, I’m not sure.

I'm calling Bill, S A Cosbby from now on.

Toni Morrison is incredible

"Ash fell from the sky."

"Once upon a time, there was a teddy bear. An old man, bent with tragedy but still daring to dream, made him into a thing that could feel and think. And if the teddy bear could have said "Status", he would have seen the following words. Name: ??? Age: 1 minute Jobs: Greater Toy Golem Level 1. But alas, the little teddy bear who was now a golem could not speak or even read or write. Not at the beginning. The old man thought that made him a failure. And so the old man made a mistake that would cost him and his loved ones dearly..." The prologue of "Stuff and Nonsense" by Andrew Seiple.

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.

Best first line in fiction: "I was there, the day Horus slew the Emperor." From the fist Horus Heresy book: Horus Rising.

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

“I hope it’s a gloomy book,” he says about I Know This Much is True. LITTLE DOES HE KNOW… (And yes, it is a good line.)

I knew The Hobbit line would be mentioned, and man, do I just disagree lmao. A few months ago, I tried reading The Hobbit and LOTR, and I couldn't go on after finishing The Fellowship of the Ring. The writing style just wasn't for me. (I love the LOTR movies, though)

in all fairness, the first few lines of perfume is better than the first line on its own.

French book but rough translation is « my mother committed suicide often » no clue if the English translation has this as the first line. Mama’s boy game over by David goudreault

His followers called him Mahasamatmam and said he was a god, he preferred to drop the maha and the atmam however, and called himself Sam, he never claimed to be a god, but then, he never claimed not to be a god. Circumstances being what they were, neither admission could be of any benefit, silence however, could.

The dude on the right read them better.

Eoin is pronounced Owen.

Here's one I really liked recently. Probably not top 10 of all time material, but definitely better than most of the ones from that article. The foot would not fit in my briefcase, so I wrapped it in cloth and wrestled it in to an old knapsack I sometimes carry with me on expeditions.

This "journalist" just seriously took the first line from the first 10 books that came up in a google search...

Perfume is a fantastic book, but the first line definitely doesn’t belong in the list.

Burn this book! Mister B Gone, Clive Barker

5:36 They butchered that line. It should be « In eighteenth-century France there lived a man who was one of the most gifted and abominable personages in an ear that knew no lack of gifted and abominable personages. »

It was a pleasure to burn.

These were some bad lines on this list.