HAPPILY EVER AFTER discussion

What are your favourite 'first lines' in books?

NOTE: Authors can share 'first lines' from their own books as well :-) 

"I didn't suspect the day Grandfather came out and got me and my sister, Lula, and hauled us off toward the ferry that I'd soon end up with worse things happening than had already come upon us or that I'd take up with a gun-shooting dwarf, the son of a slave, and a big angry hog, let alone find true love and kill someone, but that's exactly how it was. - The Thicket, Joe R. Lansdale

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", Jane Austen)

I'm not absolutely certain of my facts, but I rather fancy it's Shakespeare --or, if not, it's some equally brainy bird --who says that it's always just when a fellow is feeling particularly braced with things in general that Fate sneaks up behind him with the bit of lead piping.

("Jeeves And The Unbidden Guest", a short story in, "Carry On, Jeeves", P.G. Wodehouse)

The thing about lying to your parents is, you have to do it to protect them.

("Twenties  Girl", Sophie Kinsella)

Dear Sophie, 
My fiancé's former girlfriend showed up at our engagement party uninvited and released four dozen white mice.

("The Diva Takes The Cake", Krista Davis)

The typist nodded. It was finished, as neat a design for murder as could be envisioned.

("Design For Murder", Carolyn G. Hart) 

Captain Crosbie came out of the bank with the pleased air of one who has cashed a cheque and has discovered that there is just a little more in his account than he thought there was.

("The Came To Baghdad", Agatha Christie)

Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.

("Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone", J.K. Rowling)

When the phone rang, Parker was in the garage, killing a man." 

("Firebreak", Richard Stark)

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way--in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

("A Tale of Two Cities", Charles Dickens)