It was a warm afternoon in early September when I first met the Illustrated Man.

[Swede]

I always liked that opening line.



http://www.raybradbury.com/books/illustratedman-hc.html

[Kind of Blue]

1. "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit" - pure enchantment.

as well as King's The Gunslinger, "The man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed" - instant excitement.

[phantom power]

2. In the beginning was a graph, more like diamond than graphite.

That one was from Schild's Ladder.

I also liked:

The abyss should shut you up.
(from Starfish)


Oh, and:

The bureaucrat fell from the sky.
(from Stations of the Tide)

[Richard D]

3. Overused, but one of my faves.

One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that in bed he had been changed into a monstrous verminous bug.

[Fumesucker]

4. ONCE UPON A TIME when the world was young there was a Martian named Smith.

"Stranger in a Strange Land" -RA Heinlein.

[Fumesucker]

5. "In five years, the penis will be obsolete," said the salesman.

-John Varley, "Steel Beach"

[Dr. Strange]

6. A beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care that the balances are correct.

Dune