Once Upon a Time, God Created the Heavens and the Earth

Not-so-famous first drafts of famous first lines:

"Call me Izzy Tinkleberg."

--Moby Dick

"It is a truth universally acknowledged that an object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force."

--Pride and Prejudice

"It was the best of times. That is all."

--A Tale of Two Cities

"Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this Son of York!
And being summer, mine doublet doth grow itchy,
The fabric clinging stickily to this be-hunched back. . ."

--Richard III

"Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way and far more entertaining."

--Anna Karenina

"As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a seven-foot purple kangaroo with a nervous tremor in his left eye."

--The Metamorphosis

"One night while Lenore I was cravin',
And my soul it hardly seemed worth savin',
What did I espy
With my neurotic eye,
But a creepy, fershlugginer Raven?!?"

--"The Raven"

XANADU, bedroom, night. Extreme close-up on the bearded mouth of CHARLES FOSTER KANE

KANE: (gasping) Rosebud. . . my. . . sleeeeddd. . . (dies)

--"Citizen Kane" (screenplay)