OPENING LINES

 

“I write this sitting in the kitchen sink. That is, my feet are in it; the rest of me is on the draining board…”
– I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith

“Had the Dean’s daughter worn a bra that afternoon, Norman Shotover might never have found out about the Church of England; still less about how to fly.”
– Unguarded Hours, A. N. Wilson

“It was the afternoon of my eighty-fifth birthday, and I was in bed with my catamite when Ali announced that the archbishop had come to see me.”
– Earthy Powers, Anthony Burgess

“It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn’t know what I was doing in New York.”
– The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath

“It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on Earth has ever produced the expression ‘As pretty as an airport.’“
– The Long Dark Tea-time of the Soul, Douglas Adams

“You are about to begin reading Italo Calvino’s new novel, If on a winter’s night a traveller.”
– If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller, Italo Calvino

“It was the day my grandmother exploded.”
– The Crow Road, Iain Banks

“Aujourd’hui, maman est morte.”
– L’Étranger, Albert Camus