Opening Lines

I searched for famous opening lines in literature on Google and stopped counting the web sites after fifty.  The literati love opening lines, and even more, they love to makes lists that rank them, but often avoid describing their criteria by which they make their selection.  It is not surprising that some remarkable opening sentences have all but been ignored, never finding a spot on one or more of the coveted lists.

In an effort to correct this sad injustice I have attempted to identify for you some of these sadly overlooked opening masterpieces.

“His gaze shifted slowly from the book lying before him to her face, with the red thumb tack stuck to her lower lip.”

“The hole in the faded sock slowly opened, exposing the pink fleshy toes.”

“Where are the goddamn pillows, he exploded in a rage.”

“It was a cold dark night and his Temporal Mandibular joint was near the point of total exhaustion.  Relief was imperative if his face was to survive.”

"The newspaper clung desperately to his ear throughout the night hoping to hear the harmony, however high."

"Terrible thoughts tore at his tormented mind.  Too timid to resist, he tottered toward the tilting tower.  Too tempting he thought, and he abruptly took a turn to the left and disappeared, never to be thought of again."

The wiggly worm poked through the keyhole and wondered, “what in the hell am I doing here”?

“My God, this is warm”, he thought, as the flames engulfed his pants.

“Why do I allow myself to get into these situations”, he thought, as he stepped into a foot deep layer of molasses with his bare feet.

“I wonder where it all ends” she thought as she wrapped the string into a tight ball."

"Poised on the brink, suspended in time, he release his grip, and the last rigatoni tumbled effortlessly into the boiling water."