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First Quotes

On beginnings, and what a 'first' really changes.

The quotes gathered here treat 'first' loosely: a rookie athlete crediting the teammates who set the tone early, a filmmaker's take on what should scare an audience right away, and a physicist weighing what can and can't be known first. If early relationships resonate, see our First Love.

When I was sixteen, I wrote the first hundred or so pages of a novel about a piano that was haunted by the ghost of an evil blues musician.

Quotes by Jonathan Tropper

I got paid 20 grand for my first film. And that's the lowest I ever got paid.

Quotes by Jonathan Rhys Meyers

Mandela once phoned me out of the blue while he was still president, and at first he played with me a bit.

Quotes by Jonathan Shapiro

When I first encountered the 'Sigma Force' novels - long before I became friends with Jim Rollins - a bookseller told me that these stories were about 'geeks with guns.' While not entirely accurate, that's pretty close to the mark,...

Quotes by Jonathan Maberry

David Benioff can hardly be classified as an underdog. The 2002 film adaptation of his first novel, 'The 25th Hour,' was directed by Spike Lee and starred Edward Norton.

Quotes by Jonathan Miles

I first encountered fish jerky during a marlin tournament in Kona, Hawaii. It was steeped in the island flavors of ginger, soy, and pineapple.

Quotes by Jonathan Miles

Technically, fish can last up to half a year in a freezer, but their quality starts to slide after the first month.

Quotes by Jonathan Miles

John Dos Passos, Raymond Carver, Flaubert and William Maxwell were all very influential when I first started writing. Now, the writers I'm most interested in are the writers who are most unlike me: for example, Denis Johnson.

Quotes by Jonathan Dee

The first draft often is really fast, and I'd be terribly ashamed if anybody ever saw it.

Quotes by Jonathan Dee

I was about 13, in some ways, when I wrote the first book. Approximately 18 when I wrote the second.

Quotes by Jonathan Franzen

Forty-five years since I made my first paycheck, and I'm telling you that 'Breaking Bad' is as good as it gets.

Quotes by Jonathan Banks

Because the series is situated in the next century, and for the most part under water, there are many innovative technical gadgets. It's a kind of StarTrek. When I first came there, I was really impressed myself.

Quotes by Jonathan Brandis

Yep, I'll stay a Brisbane Lion, you've heard it first.

Quotes by Jonathan Brown

If I was the leader of the House of Representatives, the first thing I would do is I would put in a very clean bill on reapportionment. And I would put a very clean bill in that says that corporations...

Quotes by Jon Tester

Polar' is based on the first and a little bit on the second book and all the characters from those novels are in there. The story is based on the graphic novel, but when it came to the execution of...

Quotes by Jonas Akerlund

I got involved when I was a graduate student at UCLA when UCLA was the first site on the net.

Quotes by Jon Postel

The routers get involved in this and they know that on the path between this router and that router a certain percentage of the bandwidth is reserved to these things and a certain percentage of it is allowed on a...

Quotes by Jon Postel

At first, I did stories on people who were maybe just eccentric. Omar was a natural progression from that.

Quotes by Jon Ronson

In the end, the sign of Aretha Franklin's artistry is that she always leaves her mark - first, on the music, then on us.

Quotes by Jon Landau

Last week I was just someone who had had a first novel published.

Quotes by Jon McGregor

Frequently Asked Questions

Does this page include a quote about starting an NFL career?
Yes. One quote looks back on the very beginning of an NFL career, crediting teammates named Tim Dwight and Eric Parker with showing what work ethic it takes to be an NFL receiver. It's a good example of first marking an early, formative stage of a career. For more on early milestones, see First Step quotes.
Is there a quote about horror movies or scaring an audience?
Yes - one quote states it plainly: "The first monster you have to scare the audience with is yourself." It's a compact idea about confronting your own fear before you can frighten anyone else. For more on how first moments set the tone, browse First Impression quotes.
Does this collection touch on science, like physics?
It does. One quote discusses the uncertainty relation, explaining that it does not refer to the past, and using the example of an electron's velocity being at first known and its position then exactly measured. It's a more technical, scientific sense of first.
What does the quote about the constitution say?
One quote makes a direct statement: "The constitution does not provide for first and second class citizens." It's a clear, principled statement about equal citizenship. It naturally pairs with First Class quotes on this page.
Do all the quotes here use "first" the same way?
Not at all - that's part of the appeal. Across this page, first describes a rookie's early days in the league, a monster's first scare, an electron's first known velocity, and even first-class citizenship. If you like exploring different kinds of firsts, First Love quotes make a nice companion stop.

One quote pushes past personal firsts into a civic claim about equal standing under the constitution, which broadens the theme beyond simple nostalgia. Related pages include First Impression and First Step.