having the last say

One of the writing groups I'm on recently decided to compile a list of their favourite last lines in books. (Prompted by The Guardian doing the same thing.)

Some of the lines struck me as lovely or clever or intriguing, and I thought publishers should consider marketing books more on their last lines than on random, poorly constructed blurbs.

Here's a sample of other people's favourite last lines.

"When he comes, my Zaylo, be gentle with him. These Earthmen have big bodies, but inside them there are lost children". ~John Wyndham: A Time to Rest

"They had found universes in grains of sand." ~Greg Bear: Blood Music

"All letters of protest should be addressed to people not yet born." ~Greg Bear: The Machineries of Joy

"This afterlife shit is overrated." ~Richard Morgan: Broken Angels

"The long night had come again." ~Asimov: Nightfall

"Well, I'm back," he said. ~J.R.R. Tolkien: The Return of The King

"One by one, without any fuss, the stars were going out. ~Arthur C. Clarke: The Nine Billion Names of God

"And in the end, only the bards knew whether they were true or a legend." ~Lloyd Alexander: The High King.

(The person who contributed this wrote, "I bawl at the end of this series Every.Single. Time -which is why I'm a bit fuzzy on the wording - even though it is basically a happy ending, and usually want to shout at the author, But of *course* they were real!'" I remember this last line, too, even though I haven't read the book since I was 12 or younger. I had the same reaction.)

"There was a point to this story, but it has temporarily escaped the chronicler's mind." ~Douglas Adams: So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish