Great First Lines

I have always tried to come up with a good first line. Something that gets the reader's attention and compels them to read on. Something that either draws your interest or makes you do a double take. What are some of your favorite first lines, be it from story or book?

Here are some of mine:


"Nurse Thornton dropped into the Long-Term-Care Ward a little before eight with a hot dog bag of blood for Charlie Manx."

Joe Hill, NOS4A2


"To get to the lost city of Port Royal, you take the busy road to the Michael Manley International Airport, jostling on the crowded roads with the streams of cars and motorcycles and taxis packed full of people who flock to Jamaica from every corner of the world."

Stephan Talty, Empire of Blue Water



"It was early one morning in the Spring of 1895, and Sherlock Holmes and I were, as usual, running for our lives."

James Lovegrove, Sherlock Holmes and the Miskatonic Monstrosities



"I had just come to accept that my life would be ordinary when extraordinary things began to happen."

Ransom Riggs, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children