1. “It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs and I didn’t know what I was doing in New York.” - Sylvia Plath, "The Bell Jar"

2. "We wanted more." - Justin Torres, "We the Animals"

3. “A screaming comes across the sky.” - Thomas Pynchon, "Gravity's Rainbow"

4. "First the colors." - Markus Zusak, "The Book Thief"

5.“Quiet as it’s kept, there were no marigolds in the fall of 1941.” - Toni Morrison, "The Bluest Eye"

6. "Mr. And Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much." - J.K, Rowling, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone"

7. "If you are interested in stories with happy endings, you would be better off reading some other book." - Lemony Snicket, "The Bad Beginning"

8. "I still remember the day my father took me to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books for the first time" – Carlos Ruiz Zafon, "The Shadow of the Wind"

9. "Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun." - Douglas Adams, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"

10. "All of this happened, more or less." - Kurt Vonnegut, "Slaughter House Five"

11. "It was a quiet morning, the town covered over with darkness and at ease in bed." - Ray Bradbury, "Dandelion Wine"