I don't know if I'd be so familiar with the Neuromancer opener if people (with middle-aged TVs, it seems, since mine is only two years old) didn't keep complaining about it.
You do well to flee, townspeople! I will pillage your lands and dwellings! I will burn your crops and make merry sport with your more attractive daughters! Ha ha ha! Mark my words! Ooh! Ale! I smell delicious ale!
Olaf the Troll ,'Showtime'
We're Literary 2: To Read Makes Our Speaking English Good
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
§ ita § - Dec 16, 2004 4:09:00 am PST #6637 of 10002
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
Connie Neil - Dec 16, 2004 4:30:28 am PST #6638 of 10002
brillig
This is the only one that really pings me, largely because I hear Richard Burton saying it.
Not as good, though, as the triumphant, satisfied way he says, "They were doomed."
The "Neuromancer" line is completely new to me. This would probably be because I've never read the thing.
brenda m - Dec 16, 2004 4:43:51 am PST #6639 of 10002
If you're going through hell/keep on going/don't slow down/keep your fear from showing/you might be gone/'fore the devil even knows you're there
Most famous or not, I think what Gaiman was getting at was, "if you think you caught me out lifting a line like that, think again, dumbass." That's how I read it anyway.
Polter-Cow - Dec 16, 2004 4:49:09 am PST #6640 of 10002
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!
Neuromancer is probably the third most famous, after “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.”
This was the one that came to mind for me. Then again, I don't even recognize the other suggestions. Except:
I was also thinking "It was a pleasure to burn."
This was a Trivia Night question one night, and it pissed me off that I couldn't remember it, since I'd read the damn book. Way back in junior high, but still.
I've read War of the Worlds, too.
"In the week before their departure to Arrakis"
What's that, Dune ?
" It is the colour of a bleached skull, his flesh; and the long hair which flows below his shoulders is milk-white."
No clue.
Kate P. - Dec 16, 2004 5:06:27 am PST #6641 of 10002
That's the pain / That cuts a straight line down through the heart / We call it love
It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.
I don't know this one.
It was a pleasure to burn.
But this must be Fahrenheit 451, right? I don't know what I'd nominate for the title, but I'm still largely unversed in classic SF.
Polter-Cow - Dec 16, 2004 5:15:58 am PST #6642 of 10002
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!
I don't know this one.
1984.
But this must be Fahrenheit 451, right?
Yep.
Kate P. - Dec 16, 2004 5:17:25 am PST #6643 of 10002
That's the pain / That cuts a straight line down through the heart / We call it love
Oh, right. I read 1984 probably ten years ago.
Matt the Bruins fan - Dec 16, 2004 5:27:18 am PST #6644 of 10002
"I remember when they eventually introduced that drug kingpin who murdered people and smuggled drugs inside snakes and I was like 'Finally. A normal person.'” —RahvinDragand
No clue.
Michael Moorcock's Elric of Melniboné if I'm not mistaken.
Polter-Cow - Dec 16, 2004 5:29:23 am PST #6645 of 10002
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!
Wow. I haven't even heard of that.
§ ita § - Dec 16, 2004 5:31:22 am PST #6646 of 10002
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
He's the famousest albino.