Oh, goodness. Umm. I can't promise that these are my top five, but they're what's coming to mind right now. And, for whatever reason, they appear to all be horror related. Ask again, if you like, and I'll pick another genre. 8)
1) "The man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed." From The Gunslinger, by Stephen King. Isn't that a wonderful first line?
2) "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 its 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." From The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson. You almost don't need the rest of the book, do you? That's nearly a perfect haunted house story all by itself.
3) "We never even kissed or looked into each others' eyes. Our lips just trespassed on those inner labyrinths hidden deep within our ears. Filled them with the private music of wicked words. Hers in many languages. Mine in the off color of my only tongue. Too bad dark languages rarely survive." From House of Leaves, by Mark Z Danielewski. Have you read House of Leaves? If you haven't, you really should. It's amazing.
4) "You're not the girl the doctor wanted to marry, are you? You can't be, you know, for she's dead." From Dracula, by Bram Stoker (of course). If there comes a day when I don't think that's funny, I'm probably dead myself.
5) I'm torn on this last because I have two Lovecraft quotes and can't quite choose between them. So I'm cheating.
5.1) "...all life is only a set of pictures in the brain, among which there is no difference betwixt those born of real things and those born of inward dreamings, and no cause to value the one above the other." From "The Silver Key".
5.2) And man, I'd love to quote the whole bit from the Necronomicon in "The Dunwich Horror" but we'll pare it down to this: "Their hand is at your throats, yet ye see Them not; and Their habitation is even one with your guarded threshold." That's beautifully shivery. I liked it so much, I made an icon and all.
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Date: 2010-08-14 04:59 am (UTC)1) "The man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed." From The Gunslinger, by Stephen King. Isn't that a wonderful first line?
2) "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 its 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." From The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson. You almost don't need the rest of the book, do you? That's nearly a perfect haunted house story all by itself.
3) "We never even kissed or looked into each others' eyes. Our lips just trespassed on those inner labyrinths hidden deep within our ears. Filled them with the private music of wicked words. Hers in many languages. Mine in the off color of my only tongue. Too bad dark languages rarely survive." From House of Leaves, by Mark Z Danielewski. Have you read House of Leaves? If you haven't, you really should. It's amazing.
4) "You're not the girl the doctor wanted to marry, are you? You can't be, you know, for she's dead." From Dracula, by Bram Stoker (of course). If there comes a day when I don't think that's funny, I'm probably dead myself.
5) I'm torn on this last because I have two Lovecraft quotes and can't quite choose between them. So I'm cheating.
5.1) "...all life is only a set of pictures in the brain, among which there is no difference betwixt those born of real things and those born of inward dreamings, and no cause to value the one above the other." From "The Silver Key".
5.2) And man, I'd love to quote the whole bit from the Necronomicon in "The Dunwich Horror" but we'll pare it down to this: "Their hand is at your throats, yet ye see Them not; and Their habitation is even one with your guarded threshold." That's beautifully shivery. I liked it so much, I made an icon and all.