Two openers by Anton 
Chekhov today:
“Why do you always wear black?”
“Because I’m in mourning for my life. I’m not happy.”
The first lines of his play, The Seagull, from the school teacher Medvedenko to Masha, the daughter of the estate manager. He called the play a comedy, but if comedy is there, it’s elusive. There are laughs, but they disappear around the corner fleetly.
And beginning from perhaps the greatest of his stories, or at least the one that floors me every time.
A new person, it was said, had appeared on the esplanade: a lady with a pet dog.
From the story of the same name.
A Few Reasonable Words 