First Line Quotes

#1. The first line is the DNA of the poem; the rest of the poem is constructed out of that first line. A lot of it has to do with tone because tone is the key signature for the poem. The basis of trust for a reader used to be meter and end-rhyme.

Billy Collins

#2. Since when," he asked,
"Are the first line and last line of any poem
Where the poem begins and ends?

Seamus Heaney

#3. The most difficult thing about writing; is writing the first line.

Amit Kalantri

#4. In Britain, doctors now use exercise as a first-line treatment for depression, but it's vastly underutilized in the United States,

John J. Ratey

#5. How would you start to write a poem? How would you put together a series of words for its first line - how would you know which words to choose? When you read a poem, every word seemed so perfect that it had to have been predestined - well, a good poem.

Ashley Hay

#6. I love doing costumes. The costume is an actor's first line, so it's gotta be right!

Xavier Dolan

#7. Antimicrobial resistance is on the rise in Europe and elsewhere in the world. We are losing our first-line antimicrobials. Replacement treatments are more costly, more toxic, need much longer durations of treatment, and may require treatment in intensive care units.

Margaret Chan

#8. They're out there. First line of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

Ken Kesey

#9. I was really the first-line editor of the 'House of Night' series. I didn't write that much of the story, and I didn't know what was happening until my mom finished the book and sent it to me because I wanted to read it with fresh eyes as a general reader would.

Kristin Cast

#10. I received the most fantastic welcome to the Broadway Theatre community. I walked on stage to tremendous applause and a long standing ovation, wondering when I was ever going to be able to say my first line!

Elaine Paige

#11. The Queen died. The King died."
"The Queen died. And the King died of a broken heart."
The first line was fact. The second line was a story. It placed the facts in context, added emotion and made us connect to it by making it memorable.

Daniel H. Pink

#12. Some lovers were fortunate enough to grow old together. They'd grown old apart. She did not think him any less handsome. She only wished that she'd been there when the first line on his face had appeared, so that she could have stroked and kissed and cherished it.

Sherry Thomas

#13. We wrote our first blog post before we wrote our first line of code.

Jon Miller

#14. With the first line of Mehendi, she forgot her troubles and delved into the beautiful world of checkered patterns and intricate lines.

Sumeetha Manikandan

#15. He bent down so I could hear him over the music. "What are you doing here?" he asked with a hard tone.

Okay. Not the best first line. Something like, you look beautiful, have my babies would have been a little bit better.

R.S. Grey

#16. They were really children that morning. By nightfall none of them were.

First line from Patrick's short story - The Quarry-gang Kids.

Patrick McCusker

#17. Definitions are the guardians of rationality, the first line of defense against the chaos of mental disintegration.

Ayn Rand

#18. [First line]
The business of murder took time, patience, skill, and a tolerance for the monotonous.

J.D. Robb

#19. Documentaries are the first line of education, and the second line of education is dramatization, such as 'The Pacific'.

Steven Spielberg

#20. Europe has become the first line of defense for the United States. It has become a training ground for terrorists.

Tyler Drumheller

#21. The first time I ever acted was in 'The Glass Menagerie' in high school, and my first line was, 'I didn't know Shakespeare had a sister.'

Bill Hader

#22. I write in a very peculiar way. I think about a book for 25 or 30 years in a kind of inchoate way, and at one point or another, I realize the book is ready to be written. I usually have a character, a first line, and general idea of what the book is going to be about.

Charles McCarry

#23. Poetry for me is very easy. It's like a lightning bolt. I feel this calling, and the first line of the poem comes into my head, and I just have to go to the page, to the typewriter, to the computer or whatever and write it.

Gioconda Belli

#24. The Gulf Waterkeepers are our first line of defense against the BP oil disaster. Their incredible knowledge of the marshes, wetlands, beaches and inner-coastal waters make them invaluable first responders. Their commitment makes them critical and effective community leaders.

Sophie B. Hawkins

#25. Federal nutrition programs are the first line of defense for food insecure Americans, but do not meet all of the needs of everyone who needs help.

Vicki Escarra

#26. TO LOVE Nanapush, to love at all, is like trying to remember the tune and words to a song that the spirits have given you in your sleep. Some days, I knew exactly how the song went and some days I couldn't even hum the first line.

Louise Erdrich

#27. Early in my career as an engineer, I'd learned that all decisions were objective until the first line of code was written. After that, all decisions were emotional.

Ben Horowitz

#28. I stared at the phone in disbelief, then ripped a clean sheet of paper from my notebook. I scribbled ' Jerk ' on the first line. On the line beneath it I added, ' Smokes cigars. Will die of lung cancer. Hopefully soon.

Becca Fitzpatrick

#29. I read to him from his mother's Bible the first line of Genesis: 'In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.' It says nothing about hell, Tom. That came later with the membership drive.

Poe Ballantine

#30. The people of America are in agreement in defending their liberties at any cost, and the first line of that defense lies in the protection of economic security.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

#31. The first line (of I Am The Walrus) was written on one acid trip one weekend. The second line was written on the next acid trip the next weekend, and it was filled in after I met Yoko.

John Lennon

#32. I write books that way - I put a first line down and say, "Where does this go?"

Carl Reiner

#33. I feel that if I establish the world or the premise from the first line, then I can get the reader to come with me where I want her to go.

Laurie Foos

#34. When I start writing, the first line might come from reality, but the second and the third one, I have to write it. So this is the genesis of my creation. If I want to know what happens, if I want to find out the secret, I have to write it.

Pedro Almodovar

#35. Reading is your first line of defense against an empty head.

Twyla Tharp

#36. Look. (Grown-ups skip this paragraph.) I'm not about to tell you this book has a tragic ending, I already said in the very first line how it was my favorite in all the world. But there's a lot of bad stuff coming. William Goldman, The Princess Bride

Cornelia Funke

#37. Each poor immigrant girl had a plan in place to survive. Some had brothers or fathers for protection, others, young husbands; but for all of them, the first line of defense was their scissors.

Adriana Trigiani

#38. God's first line of defense - and offense - for every situation is prayer.

Joyce Meyer

#39. The ABA works tirelessly in its efforts involving the first line of defense: the prevention of burn injuries.

Richard Neal

#40. Ensure your employees understand what your brand stands for so they can be your first line of word-of-mouth advertising.

Simon Mainwaring

#41. Besides, this story, my story, is a lot more interesting than some dried up old Russians. Why? This story has dicks, lots and lots of dicks. Oh, so now you're interested? I should have put dick in the first line.

Nick Pageant

#42. But how are you this fine evening? - My arches are falling. - Isn't that the first line of a sonnet?

Patrick Ness

#43. The first line in the first 'Gasland' is: 'I'm not a pessimist. I've always had a great deal of faith in people that we won't succumb to frenzy or rage or greed. That we'll figure out a solution without destroying the things that we love.' I have not lost that sense.

Josh Fox

#44. Your pantry is your first line of defense against food-borne illness and things like high blood pressure and cholesterol.

Joe Bastianich

#45. Rules for writing the first line? The last line?
First line: Make them want more.
Last line: Make them want the next book.

Darynda Jones

#46. When you're dealing with an in-law violation, I think the first line of defense is for the blood relation to have a serious talk.

Emily Yoffe

#47. A major theme in all my books is that the CIA is not only the first line of defense but they should also be the first line of offense.

Vince Flynn

#48. My first line of defense against reality is called sleep.

Ashleigh Brilliant

#49. The DNA of the novel - which, if I begin to write nonfiction, I will write about this - is that: the title of the novel is the whole novel. The first line of the novel is the whole novel. The point of view is the whole novel. Every subplot is the whole novel. The verb tense is the whole novel.

Mary Kay Zuravleff

#50. I always do the first line well, but I have trouble doing the others.

Moliere

#51. All we need to do, reader or writer, from first line to final page, is be as open as a book, and be alive to the life in language - on all its levels.

Ali Smith

#52. Intelligence is our first line of defense against terrorism, and we must improve the collection capabilities and analysis of intelligence to protect the security of the United States and its allies.

Saxby Chambliss

#53. The usual run of children's books left me cold, and at the age of six I decided to write a book of my own. I managed the first line, 'I am a swallow.' Then I looked up and asked, 'How do you spell telephone wires?

Bruce Chatwin

#54. The composition of a single melody is born out of a bit of text, perhaps the first line, but it can also be the entire strophe; it can even be the poem's overall form.

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau

#55. It was like being trapped forever in the present tense of the first line of a first reader.

Craig Raine

#56. Everything has already begun before, the first line of the first page of every novel refers to something that has already happened outside the book.

Italo Calvino

#57. Any newspaper, from the first line to the last, is nothing but a web of horrors, I cannot understand how an innocent hand can touch a newspaper without convulsing in disgust.

Charles Baudelaire

#58. I think what gets a poem going is an initiating line. Sometimes a first line will occur, and it goes nowhere; but other times - and this, I think, is a sense you develop - I can tell that the line wants to continue. If it does, I can feel a sense of momentum - the poem finds a reason for continuing.

Billy Collins

#59. The story thread suddenly dropped in a hopeless snarl, just as he was about to get it through the needle's eye of the first line.

Cornell Woolrich

#60. It is the first line that gives the inspiration and then it's like riding a bull. Either you just stick with it, or you don't.

Bob Dylan

#61. Men. Do they all evade as first line of defense?

Karen Marie Moning

#62. Because from the first line I can tell how many hours the mule was carrying it up his ass on the way from Colombo to Minsk. And that's nothing, I can know how many times that ass of his was ...

Victor Pelevin

#63. I remember when we were making 'They Call It Pro Football,' which was our 'Citizen Kane.' The first line is 'It starts with a whistle and ends with a gun.'

Steve Sabol

#64. Books and novels in particular that grapple with quite a few things are difficult to explain, so I think that first line can come in a substitute for trying to form a longer sense of what the book is about.

Alice Sebold

#65. A romp in the hay lingers like the first line of a song, but your true love is the one you make a life with and write more than a line about, you write a whole book.

Garrison Keillor

#66. I am a physician specializing in nutritional interventions for chronic disease and a strong advocate of superior nutrition as the first line of attack to prevent and treat most chronic diseases.

Joel Fuhrman

#67. If you criticize what you're doing too early you'll never write the first line.
[Paris Review, interview with Jodi Daynard, The Art of Fiction No. 113, Winter II 1989]

Max Frisch

#68. Instincts were his first line of defense. His body was his second. He trained it, kept it in fighting shape, just as he did any other weapon.

Pamela Clare

#69. Let's not fall into the trap of thinking that all of our Muslim American neighbors in this country are somehow our enemies here. They are our first line of defense.

Martin O'Malley

#70. Vitamin C is a very effective immune booster and probably the safest first line of defense for infection.

Lendon Smith

#71. November 25 2011 Day after Thanks giving day November 25 2011 Day after Thanks giving day This section is to check the table in the first line of the page.Independence Day, commonly known as the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the adoption of the

Anonymous

#72. Every house I've ever robbed, every establishment, it's the same story - you identify the first line of defense and take it away. That's how you get control.

Annika Martin

#73. Four lines, and the world went quiet.
I'm sorry for telling everyone about your mum, read the first line.
I miss being your friend, read the second.
Are you okay? read the third.
I see you, read the fourth, with the I underlined about a hundred times.

Patrick Ness

#74. The structure of 'March' was laid down for me before the first line was written, because my character has to exist within Louisa May Alcott's 'Little Women' plotline.

Geraldine Brooks

#75. I only worked theater jobs, but they were all really silly when I first graduated. I was a line monitor at 'Spamalot,' which means I got there at 8 A.M. and told people how much the tickets were for standing room. I was an NYU Medical School fake patient, to teach doctors how to talk to patients.

Lauren Worsham

#76. I've found my line- from now on this comes first. This is my immediate duty- without this I am nothing.

F Scott Fitzgerald

#77. Many years ago there lived a man called Laurids Madsen who went up to heaven and came down again thanks to his boots.

Carsten Jensen

#78. You make the work for yourself first and the next line is the people you trust, and you know that they're going to tell you what they feel. They let you know if you're dishing bullshit or if it's real.

Robert Longo

#79. All great masters are chiefly distinguished by the power of adding a second, a third, and perhaps a fourth step in a continuous line. Many a man has taken the first step. With every additional step you enhance immensely the value of your first.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

#80. When I began writing songs, there was a pretty direct line between what was happening in my life and what I wrote about. So my first album was really all about my failed attempts to make a particular relationship work.

Erin McKeown

#81. The first and most important thing is to remain free, free in each line you undertake, in your ideas and in your political action, in your moral conduct. The artist especially must remain free from all outer restraints.

Hans Hartung

#82. When my cousin Anil-da started telling us what he'd heard at the market about the groom's family, at my aunt Moina-pehi's wedding in January 2002, his eyes shone like inky marbles reflecting sunlight.

Aruni Kashyap

#83. The first clothing line I had was called Very Rue. Then we changed the name and moved to QVC, and the name became A Touch of Rue.

Rue McClanahan

#84. You see, every creature alive on the earth today represents an unbroken line of life that stretches back to the first primitive organism to appear on this planet; and that is about three billion years.

George Wald

#85. So if it resonates with fans - and that's always the bottom line, fans have the final say - then I'm sure we'll see more of it. I'd be honored to do it. I saw the first one today, and I cracked up. I literally laughed out loud. I saw how the sausage was made, and I still laughed.

Phil Morris

#86. It doesn't matter what the income level of your family is, or if English is the first or second language. It makes no difference. The bottom line is that every child can be an academic champion, an academic champion and a superstar in academics.

Arnold Schwarzenegger

#87. Her first week on the job a caller went silent in surprise on the other end of the line, expecting to hear Miss Jacobs' voice. Bertie's response: "Speak ass, 'cause the mouth won't!

Dawn Shamp

#88. The perfect racing car crosses the finish line first and subsequently falls into its component parts.

Ferdinand Porsche

#89. Geometry has two great treasures; one is the Theorem of Pythagoras; the other, the division of a line into extreme and mean ratio. The first we may compare to a measure of gold; the second we may name a precious jewel.

Johannes Kepler

#90. I think sometimes less is more. I don't think it helps to overdo exercising - I think you need to do it to keep your body healthy and fit, but there is a fine line between, you know, healthy and obsession. You have to build your foundation first. Your brain has to sort of connect to your body.

Martha Hunt

#91. It's all about sound. It's that simple. Wireless is wireless, and it's digital. Hopefully somewhere along the line somebody will add more ones to the zeros. When digital first started, I swear I could hear the gap between the ones and the zeros.

Eddie Van Halen

#92. I saw, for the first time, how thin the line was between fear and love, between reverence and adoration.

Veronica Roth

#93. sprinkled salt in a line ringing Kelsie's bed first, then grabbed candles from a box in the closet. They weren't the kind I had in my trailer. They were the kind with edible wax that smelled like molten candy.

Vivian Arend

#94. I'm a Christian first. I'm a family guy second. As much as I like coaching, as much as I like basketball, it's third, fourth, or fifth down the line.

Steve Alford

#95. At first a small line of inconceivable splendour emerged on the horizon, which, quickly expanding, the sun appeared in all of his glory, unveiling the whole face of nature, vivifying every colour of the landscape, and sprinkling the dewy earth with glittering light.

Ann Radcliffe

#96. Charlie Brown got hit with a line-drive!"
"Does anyone here know anything about first-aid?"
"It's probably not serious ... Second or third-aid will do.

Charles M. Schulz

#97. Her first tactic was to pretend to be in agreement with her adversary, only to draw him immediately into another line of argument.

Paulo Coelho

#98. If at the end of your first ten or fifteen years of fighting and working and feeling, you find you've written one line of one poem, you'll be very lucky indeed.

E. E. Cummings

#99. Our generation was born during the turmoil following the First World War. That war marked the dividing line - at least for the Western World - between the comfortable security of the 19th century and the instability and flux of our own time.

Robert Kennedy

#100. For the first time in history, Congress has 100 women in it. Congratulations. Welcome to modern times, America. It's great having 100 women in Congress. Unless you're in line for the congressional bathroom.

Craig Ferguson