"When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house, I had only two things on my mind: Paul Newman and a ride home."
This opening immediately introduces us to the story's narrator, Ponyboy Curtis, and establishes his situation: he's a young, working-class teenager in a tough neighborhood, preoccupied with Hollywood fantasies and the practicalities of getting home. The sentence also hints at the themes of social class, rebellion, and longing for something more that will be explored throughout the novel.