You're missing the point if you come at someone with a line you've memorized, something you want to say, or a question you want to ask. Making it about you is not the way to make a connection. You must make it about them.
For example, you can take the other person's personality into account. Do they seem introverted, extroverted, or omniverted? You might be wondering how to make the conversation about them when you haven't even met them yet. You just need to be observant.
It would be easy if you could just ask someone about themselves and off you went into a fantastic conversation, but, like dancing, chatting requires two people.
Using rule one above, you might ask someone where they bought their earrings, but the question will fall flat if you don't know anything about earrings yourself (or even have your ears pierced).