Brillig

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe; all mimsy were the borogoves,and the mome raths outgrabe.
-- Lewis Carrol, "Jabberwocky"

To begin

To begin at the beginning: It is spring, moonless night in the small town, starless and bible-black...
--Dylan Thomas, "Under Milk Wood"

Slavishly

124 was spiteful.
--Toni Morrison, "Beloved"

The Noble Knight

In a place at La Mancha, which name I do not want to remember, not very long ago lived a country hidalgo, one of those gentlemen or hidalgos who keep a lance in the lance-rack, an ancient shield, a skinny old horse, and a fast greyhound.
--Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, "The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha"

The sea-swept hero

Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead, bearing a bowl of lather on which a mirror and a razor lay crossed.
--James Joyce, "Ulysses"

25 years ago

It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. --George Orwell, "Nineteen Eighty-Four"

Distant lands

The Emperor of China is a Chinaman, as you most likely know, and everyone around him is a Chinaman too. --Hans Christian Andersen, "The Nightingale"