What are some opening lines that inspire you to read on?
One of my favourites is from Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn:
You don't know about me without you have read a book by the name of 'The Adventures of Tom Sawyer'; but that ain't no matter.
To me, this sentence says: "You heard one story about me in that other book, now get ready to hear the truth – the truth about me, about this country and about right and wrong."
Mark Twain laboured long on this book, revising and reworking it, moving it away from traditional literature to first person dialect.
This opening to the book first began, "You will not know about me...."
That was changed to: "You do not know about me...."
And finally: "You don't know about me..."
The second and third sentences read: "That book was made by Mr. Mark Twain, and he told the truth, mainly. There are things that he stretched, mainly he told the truth."
Tom Sawyer was Mark Twain talking. This book is entirely Huck. The fictional becomes real.
What other opening lines inspire?
I love the elegance of John Le Carre's writing voice. The following is the first sentence of his THE SECRET PILGRIM.
Let me confess to you at once that if I had not, on the spur of the moment, picked up my pen and scribbled a note to George Smiley inviting him to address my passing-out class on the closing evening of their entry course--and had Smiley not, against all my expectations, consented--I would not be making so free to you with my heart.