The Best Opening Lines in Books (And How to Write Your Own)

I could spend all day reading lists of the best first lines of books. In fact, I took longer than I should have to write this article for that very reason.

When you study excellent openers, you don't just learn how to give your novel a strong start. You explore the full potential of stellar prose. You discover strategies for sparking curiosity, painting a vivid world, and introducing intriguing characters in only a few words.

What I mean to say is, this article is well worth your time. So are all the other articles like it. So is copying down your favorite first sentences, speaking them out loud, memorizing them, and keeping them close for future reference.

Then, once you’ve mastered the art of writing openers, you learn how to write the rest of your novel by snagging our free e-book, Let’s Write a Book!

But one thing at a time. Let's look at some of the best first lines, what makes them so great, and how to nail your own first line.

Best Opening Lines in Books and Why They Work

We learn how to be great by observing greatness. So here it is: the best first lines of books and what makes them shine.

Total Transparency

It's always a surprising delight when the narrator levels with you about the story they're about to tell, like this: 

If you are interested in stories with happy endings, you would be better off reading some other book. In this book, not only is there no happy ending, there is no happy beginning and very few happy things in the middle. –The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket

What makes this such a brilliant opening line is that it's a promise pretending to be a warning. Anyone picking up the first book of something called “A Series of Unfortunate Events” is in it for the unending woe.

It reminds me of this other famous opener:

This is the saddest story I have ever heard. –The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford

Transparent opening lines also tend bring the humor, like this:

This is my favorite book in all the world, though I have never read it. –The Princess Bride by William Goldman

This line also sets up the unconventional, meta nature of The Princess Bride. We come to understand that the narrator is about to give us the abridged version of a (fictional) novel from his childhood. 

Now, the whole “I'm about to tell you a story” approach doesn't work for every novel. There needs to be a reason to use it. And this next example has a pretty good one:

You are about to begin reading Italo Calvino's new novel, If on a winter's night a traveler. –If on a winter’s night a traveler by Italo Calvino

Weird opener, right? Except that this is a postmodern novel about a reader (you) trying to read a book called If on a winter’s night a traveler as various interruptions arise. That opening line sets up your situation and establishes that this is gonna be a pretty meta read.

An Immediately Intriguing Character

Sometimes an author’s best move is to introduce a character guaranteed to pique their reader’s curiosity.

The Miss Lonelyhearts of the New York Post-Dispatch (Are you in trouble?—Do-you-need-advice?—Write-to-Miss-Lonelyhearts-and-she-will-help-you) sat at his desk and stared at a piece of white cardboard. –Miss Lonelyhearts by Nathanael West

Who doesn’t instantly want to know more about the male author of the Miss Lonelyhearts column?

Other times, the move is to present a deeply relatable character, like this:

Once upon a time, there was a woman who discovered she had turned into the wrong person. –Back When We Were Grownups by Anne Tyler

Tell me that one doesn’t cut a little. While I can’t speak for the whole entire world, I think it’s safe to say most people know what it’s like to suddenly realize that, for better or worse, their life didn’t roll out quite the way they’d envisioned. And plenty of us would be on board to watch how this fictional lady confronts this jarringly familiar discovery.

I’d like to point out that the opening line above also manages to clue us into the major theme and internal conflict guiding the novel. It’s a twofer! 

This next example does the same thing but in a subtler way:

When Dick Gibson was a little boy he was not Dick Gibson. –The Dick Gibson Show by Stanley Elkin

It’s a clever little starting sentence, one that makes you say, “Wait, what?” and also, “Ohhh, I get it,” and also, “Who is Dick Gibson, though?”

Turns out, it’s an extremely fitting way to open this novel about a radio show host who knows how to conform his identity to engage American listeners. Dick Gibson wasn’t Dick Gibson as a boy, because Dick Gibson was a concept that had to be built.

A Clear and Engaging Voice

Sometimes it's the voice of an omniscient third-person narrator. Sometimes it's a first-person narrator kicking off their own story, like this:

Check this out. This dude named Andrew Dahl holds the world record for blowing up the most balloons… with his nose. –Ghost by Jason Reynolds

This is how Reynolds introduces you to his protagonist, Ghost. This first line immediately tells you that you're about to hear this story from a kid with a humorous, energetic voice. And if you're anything like me, it also makes you want to learn why this nose-ballooning accomplishment is relevant.

You can also use a character's voice to present their perspective, like this:

The first annoying thing is when I ask Dad what he thinks happened to Mom, he always says, “What's most important is for you to understand it's not your fault.” You'll notice that wasn't even the question. –Where'd You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple

With this opener, we get acquainted with Bee. She's not the only first-person narrator in the book, but she's the heart and soul of the story. In these two sentences, we get a sense of Bee's voice, perspective, and family dynamics, not to mention a teaser of the mystery to come.

Then, of course, there’s the classic you almost definitely read in high school:

If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. –The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

And finally, we’ve got this convoluted but distinctive beginning with all its interjections and asides, a big hit among readers who like to exercise their brains with humorous 18th century literature:

I wish either my father or my mother, or indeed both of them, as they were in duty both equally bound to it, had minded what they were about when they begot me; had they duly considered how much depended upon what they were then doing;—that not only the production of a rational Being was concerned in it, but that possibly the happy formation and temperature of his body, perhaps his genius and the very cast of his mind;—and, for aught they knew to the contrary, even the fortunes of his whole house might take their turn from the humours and dispositions which were then uppermost:—Had they duly weighed and considered all this, and proceeded accordingly,—I am verily persuaded I should have made a quite different figure in the world, from that, in which the reader is likely to see me. –The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne

It’s typically a bit of a risk to open your novel with a sentence of that size, especially in this century, so if you’re going to do it, make sure it’s a darn good one.

The Ol' “Sorry, What?”

The best first lines of books tend to spark curiosity. There are a lot of ways to do this, but one is to offer the reader something unexpected—something that demands further explanation.

Sam Vimes sighed when he heard the scream, but he finished shaving before he did anything about it. –Night Watch by Terry Pratchett

Who's screaming? Why are they screaming? Why is Sam Vimes so chill about it? Was he expecting the scream? Did he somehow cause it? I have questions.

Then there's this:

It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. –Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell

You find this one included on pretty much every list of the best first lines of books. It's masterful in its ordinariness. In fact, this would be a dull sentence if it weren't for the word “thirteen.”

That number puts us only one stroke beyond the clock functionality we're familiar with. We find ourselves in a world where something is definitely off, but maybe not as removed from our current reality as we'd like to believe.

The Promise of a Good Story

Some authors immediately assure their readers that this story is gonna be good.

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. –One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

How could you not want to read that? What happens between that first encounter with ice and an eventual execution?

Then there's this:

The snow in the mountains was melting and Bunny had been dead for several weeks before we came to understand the gravity of our situation. –The Secret History by Donna Tartt

Not only does this single sentence provide a setting, character (albeit a dead one), and dire conflict, it also plunks us right in the middle of the disaster. Beyond “just” suggesting a good story is coming, this opening line tells us we won't have to wade through a bunch of exposition to get to it.

A Clue of What’s to Come

Another clever move authors use is to tease the entire experience of the novel in the first sentence. Think of it as like a micro-blurb.

This can be more thematic or vibey in nature, like this:

Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show. –David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

Or the author might even sum up the entire premise in one sentence.

One summer afternoon Mrs. Oedipa Maas came home from a Tupperware party whose hostess had put perhaps too much kirsch in the fondue to find that she, Oedipa, had been named executor, or she supposed executrix, of the estate of one Pierce Inverarity, a California real estate mogul who had once lost two million dollars in his spare time but still had assets numerous and tangled enough to make the job of sorting it all out more than honorary. –The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon

Now, there is a bit more to the premise than that. The real estate mogul is her ex-lover, and there’s a conspiracy involved. But this kind of opener reassures the reader that the story is actually starting now. No build-up, no fluff.

A Li'l Context

The physical, cultural, and historical setting of a novel can give the reader an idea of what to expect in terms of character and conflict. This context also can also set the tone, especially if you choose vivid, specific details, like Plath does.

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 by Sylvia Plath

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes came out the same summer, by the way. Imagine how the tone would shift if that was the detail Plath's narrator included.

Here's another classic:

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife. –Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

With this opening line, Austen lets us know we've entered a world where marriage and money are matters of great urgency. We also get the sense she'll be making fun of that world.

Then we’ve got the opener to Brave New World:

A SQUAT grey building of only thirty-four stories. –Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Squat and grey already sets a tone. The fact that a building of “only” thirty-four stories is considered squat tells us a little something else about the world we’ve entered.

And finally, there’s perhaps the most famous opening line of all time:

It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents, except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the house-tops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness. –Paul Clifford by Edward George Bulwer-Lytton

The Thinker

Some of the best first lines of books are statements of theme. But, like, beautifully written statements of them. Not just “Love conquers all.” 

Here's the opener to one of my all-time faves:

Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others, they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time. –Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

Vivid and devastating. I'd forgotten about this line and will be haunted by it for at least the next week.

Here's another great one:

If I have learned anything in this long life of mine, it is this: in love we find out who we want to be; in war we find out who we are. –The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

It's one of those lines that feels true, and now I want to read the story she wrote to back up this claim.

Then there’s one of the most famous first lines of all time:

Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. –Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

How to Write Great Opening Lines

Now it's time to write the opener that'll put you on the list of the best first lines of books.

Here are some tips to help you compose a winner.

Highlight Your Novel's Best Feature

‍A great book is one that's mastered every aspect of storytelling. Nevertheless, I believe most authors are well-aware of which aspect of their story is the “hookiest.” I'm talking about things like:

Character

I suppose that’s exactly the problem. I wasn’t raised to know any better. –The Sellout by Paul Beatty

With these first two sentences, you know you’ve got a character who’s made a big mistake. You’ve also got a tone that suggests both an awareness of the mistake and a lack of deep regret or apology.

Who is this person? What have they done? How did they reason through it? I, for one, would like to know. 

Is your character intriguing beyond reason? See if there's a way to bring that out in your first line.

Voice

Your narrator's voice should come through in your first line no matter what. But if that voice happens to be a wildly entertaining one, let the reader see that from the beginning. Here's a great example:

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. –The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams

Setting

If your setting is particularly unique, magical, or significant to the story, consider starting there. Zoom in on a few key details as Jess Walter does in this example:

The dying actress arrived in his village the only way one could come directly – in a boat that motored into the cove, lurched past the rock jetty, and bumped against the end of the pier. –Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter

From the setting he describes to the verbs he uses, Walter makes it clear that we're in a location defined by obscurity and inconvenience. 

Get to the Good Stuff

Jump ahead to the action. No one cares about watching your protagonist wake up, unless they wake up like this:

As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect. –Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

So, sure. If the conflict happens to begin when the protagonist wakes up, go for it. Otherwise, skip the teeth-brushing and fast forward to the fun. 

Establish the Voice

One thing you'll notice about all the best first lines of books is that the narrator's voice is immediately clear. 

You know how you've got that one friend who has your rapt attention every time they tell a story? Their personality and perspective colors the story they tell, and that one-of-a-kind tint makes their tale that much more enjoyable.

Get your reader to feel that way when you start “talking.” 

If you could use help nailing down the voice of your novel, Nisha's got a great article for you.

Establish the Tone

Your tone conveys the narrator's attitude toward the story being told. Is it eerie? Defiant? Snarky? Romantic?

Whatever it is, nail it down and make it obvious with your first line.

Be Specific

Excellent prose is all about specificity. Even the three-word first line of Beloved—”124 was spiteful”—gives us an exact address. Vivid details are what make the world of your story real to the reader. 

Now, if you open on the maid vacuuming the hotel room, you don't have to name the hotel and the maid and the brand of vacuum and the kind of crumbs that are on the floor. Just offer one or two concrete details that feel too exact to be made up. 

Spark Curiosity

Whatever information you choose to highlight in your opening line, make it something that sparks your reader's curiosity. And it doesn't take a lot of blabbering to do that. Take it from Ray Bradbury.

It was a pleasure to burn. –Fahrenheit 451

That's chilling and demands context.

Try to inspire questions like:

• What's going to happen?
• Who is this person?
• Why are they doing that?
• Are they going to be okay?
• What's it like to live in this world?
• What's even going on right now?

After all, the first line should compel your audience to read the next line and the next and the next until oops! It's two in the morning and they accidentally finished their new favorite novel.

On that note:

Beyond the Stunning First Line

Your opener is just the beginning. It’s an important beginning for sure. That first line acts as a sort of promise to your reader, assuring them that they can expect a compelling voice, fascinating world, engaging character, or chilling conflict.

And once you’ve made that promise, you’ve got to deliver, which means you’ve got to write about 9,000 more great sentences.

If you could use some help making sure every line shines, join us in DabbleU Campus, a free online community where you can connect with other writers, swap feedback, and hone your craft with our free educational resources.

Or take it a step further and become a DabbleU Academy member. That gets you access to live workshops and community events, plus our full library of self-guided courses. You get full access to the Academy for 14 days when you sign up for a free trial of the Dabble writing tool. Just click here and get started on crafting a novel that sparkles from beginning to end.