The Hook

How do you start your stories? Do you try to begin with some type of attention-grabbing element? If you can't hook your reader within the first paragraph you probably won't retain them for the entire story. This is mostly applicable to the short story artform, but I think it's just as viable for full length novels as well. I always prefer to start off with an unattributed quote from a character. Something like this: "There's no telling how many people I'm going to have to kill today." Don't attribute that little bit of dialogue and make sure it has something to pull the reader in. Identify the speaker in the next two to three paragraphs. That gets the literary ball rolling and your reader will likely stick with you longer. Just my own personal tactic, but I'm curious if my fellow writers do something similiar.