"I don't like books that open with the weather; with the wind blowing and the leaves falling, mood stuff like that."

~ Elmore Leonard (b. 1925 - ) American novelist.

"I think you open with the action, introduce the two main characters."

~ Maeve Binchy (1940 - 2012) Irish novelist.

"A genuine writer forgets a work as soon as he has completed it and starts to think of the next one;  if he thinks about his past work at all, he is more likely to remember its faults rather than its virtues. . . He needs approval of his work by others in order to be reassured that the vision of life he believes he has had is a true vision and not a self-delusion, but he can only be reassured by those whose judgment he respects."

~ W. H. Auden (1907 - 1972) Anglo-American poet.  The Dyer's Hand, 1963.