Do you have a favorite line from a book? Something literary and insightful, or so hilarious you snortle (that's a combination of snorting and chortling) every time you read it? I have favorite movie lines, and at least once a week I catch myself on Facebook posting a line or two of lyrics that struck me from whatever song was playing, but I realized I don't have any favorite book lines. Or even excerpts.
I'm always so envious of authors who find that exact phrase from Shakespeare or the Bible or some other piece of literature to start off a chapter. I read Shakespeare and honestly just get lost in the jumble of words, yet others can pluck out that one line that will perfectly define Part 2 of their novel. (I'm looking at you, Nora Roberts!) So what's your favorite line(s)? Though I don't have one from literature, I did memorize the first stanza of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Kubla Khan while in high school, and that imagery of emerald grass, clear water, and black caves has always stuck with me. As did the sibilance of Edgar Allan Poe's silken, sad, and uncertain violet draperies. Plus, I've always looked for ways to use the verb "wrought" in conversation without referencing pretty iron balconies.
9 Comments
Jason
2/26/2013 01:27:27 am
One of my favorites is the opening page of chapter one of the book "the Outsiders" by S.E. Hinton.
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I have a few:
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2/26/2013 07:15:58 am
There have been lines I've loved, but I never remember them long enough to recite them elsewhere. They are never long and usually have a back story to them. In Mama Mia the movie, for example, one character asks another, "Bill, where's your spontaneity?" It becomes a running joke and we use it the same way in our family.
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2/26/2013 07:30:20 am
These are from The Seduction of Lady Phobe, which goes on pre-order in April and releases in September.
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Margaret Taylor
2/26/2013 08:33:23 am
I'm a bit like Ella. I love lines in books but can never remember them long enough to recite them again.
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Taylor
2/26/2013 11:01:16 am
Thanks, all! These are great!
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Kathy aka C. K. Crouch
2/26/2013 03:14:38 pm
I guess I have to say the line from Lord of the Rings Return of the Kings where Smeagol tells Sam "Give them to us raw and wriggling. you keep nasty chips" he was talking about rabbits lol.
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2/26/2013 07:37:45 pm
Hi Taylor -
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Taylor
2/27/2013 01:51:35 pm
Thanks, ladies! I haven't read any of the LOTR books (lamentable lack in my literary education, right???). As for the Mill quote, I like that one - thanks for sharing it, Lacey!
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