Got any lines from your favorite books that just stick in your head?
Here's one of mine. It's from the Watchmen, by Alan Moore.
quote: Soon it will be dark. Beneath me, this awful city, it screams like an abattoir full of retarded children.
Makes my skin crawl.
Posted by PSI Teleport (Member # 5545) on :
"Don't be bashful, Pops. Are you looking for a naughty little girl?"
"Heavens no. I'm looking for a naughty little boy."
"Whoops, dearie. Pardon ME."
Posted by T_Smith (Member # 3734) on :
"Sir? There seems to be a problem with this Ice-Sucky machine. Please make my pain end."
"The machines go off at two. Buy something else or leave. We have marshmellow treats. Try marshmellow treats. They are deliciousss."
"But... but I really want one. Couldn't you just turn it back on? I'll wait. Oh, how I will wait. I will wait until your children are wrinkled and gassy."
"Leave this place you strange little man. No sucky for you on this night."
"Heyyyy... wait a minute. You're the devil, aren't you?"
"No, I'm not the devil, go away."
"Oh, come on. You're the devil."
::metamorphis::
"Yesss! I am the devil! Darn you and your mighty word probe!"
Posted by Ryuko (Member # 5125) on :
T_Smith reads Johnny the Homicidal Maniac??? My world is rended by the satanic head bitey!!
Posted by Dan_raven (Member # 3383) on :
Will you eat them on a boat? Will you eat them with a goat? You will like them Sam-I-Am. You will like Green Eggs and Ham.
ahh. the classics.
Posted by eslaine (Member # 5433) on :
quote: The sky was the color of a television tuned to a dead channel.
-William Gibson Neuromancer
quote: He loved to burn.
-Ray Bradbury (runner up "Greatest Science Fiction Author" see sakeriver forum)Farenheit 451
Both are opening lines. I've probably quoted them before.
Gibson is a special case, though. His "film-noir" style of writing lends itself to a lot of simile. Neuromancer, as well as most of his fiction, is riddled with similes. Look at the first chapter of Count Zero, starting with the main character's reflection on dying in the beginning after contacting "black ice", Gibson builds similies and uses descriptive prose to great effect.
Perhaps all the best similies are destined to degenerate into cliches. If a simile is really good, and describes something that will echo into the common psyche, then it will get overused ad-nauseum.
But I still love them. Charged with imagry and a sense of the colloquial, they can leave very memorable comparisons.
![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
My world is rended by the satanic head bitey!!