Greatest Sentence of All Time?

[Krieg]

"The cold passed reluctantly from the earth, and the retiring fogs revealed an army stretched out on the hills, resting."

"I never thought anything that kinky could happen to me but there I was delivering a pizza when the 'lady' of the house answered the door; she was [deleted by censor]."

All you had to say was "Dear Penthouse..."

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

"Thunder rolled....it rolled a six."

 

[MonsterMash]

I like this one

The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.

 

[Pielorinho]

I like this one

I love that one, too, and think about it all the time!

My favorite part of it is how drastically it has changed. When it was written, it referred to grainy, hissing static: the sky it described was stormy, charged with energy, gray.

But now, a television tuned to a dead channel will usually appear brilliant blue. Now the sky it refers to is sterile, artificial, full of quiet but ominous energy.

It totally changes the feel of the first scene (and by extension, alters the entire novel's atmosphere in a subtle fashion), but the change works pretty well. I think it's awesome, and I bet that Gibson is pretty pleased with it too, inasmuch as it says something about technology that he loves to say.

Daniel

 

[ragboy]

Whatever exists, he said, whatever in creation exists without my knowledge exists without my consent

Best quote from my favorite book.

 

[howandwhy99]

"There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers what the universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable.
There is another which states that this has already happened."

Yeah, Poe is great and all, but I think Adams has him by a nose. Literally.

 

[Fast Learner]

I'll go with another Adams fave: "The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't."

 

[barsoomcore]

It is surely no coincidence that no language on earth has ever produced the phrase, "As pretty as an airport."



Douglas Adams, we miss you.

A lot.

 

[replicant2]

"Death came quietly to the Row."

A cookie if you can tell me what book it came from.

It's not a "WOW" type of sentence but it's my favorite lead into a novel.

I'm at work so I don't have a reference, but I'm guessing Stephen King's The Green Mile.

 

[Tom Cashel]

Two of my faves:

A screaming comes across the sky. It has happened before, but there is nothing to compare it to now.

Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed.