"Nothing ever begins.
There is no first moment; no single word or place from which this or any other story springs.
The threads can always be traced back to some earlier tale, and to the tales that preceded that; though as the narrator's voice recedes the connections will seem to grow more tenuous, for each age will want the tale told as if it were of its own making."

(Clive Barker, "Weave World", 1987)

Erste Sätze

"This is the story of what a Woman's patience can endure, and what a Man's resolution can achieve."

(Wilkie Collins, The Woman in White, 1868)

Erste Sätze

"Figaro here, Figaro there, I tell you! Figaro upstairs, Figaro downstairs and - oh my goodness me, this little Figaro can slip into my lady's chamber smart as you like at any time whatsoever that he takes the fancy for, don't you know, he's a cat of the world, cosmopolitan, sophisticated; he can tell when a furry friend is the Missus' best company. For what lady in all the world could say 'no' to the passionate yet toujours discreet advances of a fine marmelade cat?"

(Angela Carter, "Puss-in-Boots", aus "The Bloody Chamber", 1979)

Erste Sätze

"Es regnete stundenlang, nächtelang, tagelang, wochenlang. Die Strassen, die Avenuen, die Boulevards glänzten vor Nässe, den Gehsteigen entlang flossen Rinnsale, Bäche, kleinere Flüsse, die Automobile schwammen herum, die Menschen gingen unter Schirmen, waren in Mäntel gehüllt, liefen mit nassen Schuhen und immer feuchten Strümpfen, die Riesen, Putten und Aphroditen, die teils die Balkone der Palais und Hotels trugen, teils sonst an den Fassaden klebten, troffen, tropften, waren übergossen von Wasserfäden, von Vogelmist, der sich auflöste, und unter dem griechischem Giebel des Parlaments suchten zwischen den Beinen und Brüsten der patriotischen Reliefs die Tauben Schutz. Es war ein peinlicher Januar."

(Friedrich Dürrenmatt, "Grieche sucht Griechin", 1955)

Erste Sätze

"Nun seht, jetzt fangen wir an. Wenn wir am Ende der Geschichten angekommen sind, wissen wir mehr als beim Beginn."

(Hans Christian Andersen, "Die Schneekönigin. Ein Märchen in sieben Geschichten", 1835 - 1840)

Erste Sätze

"In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, not yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort."

(J.R.R. Tolkien, "The Hobbit", 1937)

Erste Sätze

"The unicorn lived in a lilac wood, and she lived all alone. She was very old, though she did not know it, and she was no longer the careless color of sea foam, but rather the color of snow falling on a moonlit night."

(Peter S. Beagle, "The last Unicorn", 1968)

Erste Sätze