Fave one liner from a book?

[judgejudyandexecutioner]

"It's lipless mouth quivered and slathered"
War of the Worlds - H G Wells

Heh, I have now looked back through the thread and seen that Wuthering Heights and Brighton Rock have already been mentioned; apologies for the repetition! Still, my other two are good.

So many excellent lines here, good work, everyone :)

"In the end it was the Sunday afternoons he couldn't cope with, and that terrible listlessness which starts to set in at about 2:55, when you know that you've had all the baths you can usefully have that day, that however hard you stare at any given paragraph in the papers you will never actually read it, or use the revolutionary new pruning technique it describes, and that as you stare at the clock the hands will move relentlessly on to four o'clock, and you will enter the long dark teatime of the soul."

I think that comes from one of the Dirk Gently books by Douglas Adams. I always thought that the 'long dark tea time of the soul' was the perfect way to describe Sunday evenings.

Those lines from Wuthering Heights on someone's final resting place are very beautiful eg
And I did like those "wherever I lay my hat" ones of yours too Grapes

Found it. 'Then, instead of expensive mouthwash, he had breathed on Hogg-Enderby, bafflingly (for no banquet would serve, because of the known redolence of onions, onions) onions.' Anthony Burgess, Enderby Outside.

Cheating, mine is a hymn verse
"The sun that bids us rest is waking
Our brethren ?neath the western sky,
And hour by hour fresh lips are making
Thy wondrous doings heard on high."

After singing that, I'm always a "poor soul" whose "face is much abused with tears" (There's a Shakespeare bonus)

thatsalovelyhat, that's brilliant! Do you think Burgess made a bet he could end a novel with perfectly grammatical and nonredundant "onions onions onions"?

"..I hope she'll be a fool - that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool"

The Great Gatsby

This thread has been food for my soul. Thanks, judgejudy an' all.

'Whatever she would do, she did and made no one responsible'.

DH Lawrence Sons and Lovers

Parsing, it runs in my mind that in the third book he uses a similar construct just to show he can, but really, what could surpass the onions?

Now I wonder what word will end this thread.

Oh, and:

"But she was so very, very Glasgow, you know!"

"Housebound" by Winifred Peck

May we, eventually, contemplate all this together.

And so, eventually, we contemplate this apart, years apart.

Moon Tiger, Penelope Lively.

My two are not one-liners but hey ho.

The first is from That Lady by Kate O'Brian:

"He drew her hard against him, and kissed her mouth as if in first desire. Ana thought - this is the last embrace of my mortal life; people can't often know when they have reached the last. But I do know. Good-bye, she answered him now with her whole self, with all of strength and gratitude in her possession - good-bye to you, and also to that long-assuaged and quieted me that you alone commanded. Good-bye, dear past, dear sin, and go from me in peace. I loved you and I have atoned and will atone."

The second one is from The Farthest Shore :

"As Lookfar approached the islands Arren saw the dragons soaring and circling on the morning wind, and his heart leapt up with them with a joy, a joy of fulfilment, that was like pain. All the glory of mortality was in that flight. Their beauty was made up of terrible strength, and utter wildness, and the grace of reason. For these were thinking creatures with speech, and ancient wisdom: in the patterns of their flight there was a fierce, willed concord.

Arren did not speak, but he thought: I do not care what comes after; I have seen the dragons on the wind of morning"

freerange I agree. I've had that feeling all afternoon!

Whoever made Erebus knew all the charm of horizontal lines,

Apsley Cherry Garrard The Worst Journey in the World

Ooh poetry.

It was the time of year
Pale lambs leap with thick leggings on
Over small hills that are not there
That I saw Eggardon.

• the start of A Prehistoric Camp by Andrew Young. It was a Poem on the Underground a few years back, and I quite liked it, and then I saw this Welsh film and blimey. This is EXACTLY what skittish shorn lambs do.

Also,

A young man wrote a poem about a rat.
It was the best poem ever written about a rat.

• The Rat (no!) by Don Paterson. I love it.

"There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it. His parents called him Eustace Clarence, and his masters called him Scrubb. I can't tell you how his friends called him, because he had none." (Opening line of Voyage of the Dawn Treader, CS Lewis)

"There's only one thing worse than being talked about... and that's NOT being talked about!" (Oscar Wilde)

"Next time you threaten someone [a child] with good hiding, I suggest you pick on a person your own size, like me for instance." (Danny the Champion of the World, Roald Dahl)

"Miss Hardbroom, I am Ethel! Mildred Hubble turned me into a pig."
Nothing ever surprised Miss Hardbroom. Even this startling piece of news only caused her to raise one slanting eyebrow. (The Worst Witch, Jill Murphy)

"I am thirty-five today - which means I am officially middle-aged. A pathetic slide towards gum disease, wheelchair ramps and death." (Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction)

Many of Roald Dahl's books had a dramatic opening line.

"What a lot of hairy-faced men there are nowadays." (The Twits)

"In fairy tales, witches always wear silly black hats and black cloaks, and they ride on broomsticks. But this is not a fairy tale - this is about REAL witches." (The Witches)

And finally:

"It's a funny thing about mothers and fathers. Even when their offspring is the most disgusting little blister you can imagine, they still think he or she is wonderful." (Matilda)

"It's a funny time, three o' clock. Too late for lunch, but a bit early for tea." (Alan Bennett)

"In the prison hospital, several times a day you would be asked 'Are you all right?'.

"The correct replies were always 'Yes thank you, Doctor', 'Yes thank you, Sister,' or 'Yes thank you, madam,' even though you might be dying on your feet. Indeed, it became so automatic that some prisoners would say 'yes thank you' before the question was even asked, thus throwing the whole conversation out of gear."

(Who lie in gaol)

Adrian Mole's satirical poem about Mrs Thatcher:
"Do you weep, Mrs Thatcher, do you weep?
Do you wake, Mrs Thatcher, in your sleep?
Do you weep like a sad willow?
On your Marks and Spencer's pillow?
Are your tears molten steel, do you weep?
Do you wake with 'three million' on your brain?
Are you sorry that they'll never work again?
When you're dressing in your blue, do you see the waiting queue?
Do you weep, Mrs Thatcher, do you weep?"

I love that too wanderings - some of Adrian Mole is genius.

"This tea looks strong, pull the curtains."

or alternatively

"Give me your teeth, I'll swill them."

Alan Bennett

Near the end of Toni Morrison's "Beloved":
"You your best thing, Sethe. You are." His holding fingers are holding hers.
"Me? Me?"

?Helmer: I would gladly work night and day for you, Nora - bear sorrow and want for your sake. But no man would sacrafice his honor for the one he loves.
Nora: It is a thing hundreds of thousands of women have done.?

Henrik Ibsen, A Doll's House