I made the remark that I don't avoid people in order to live quietly, but rather in order to be able to die quietly.
Franz KafkaWriting sustains me. But wouldnโt it be better to say it sustains this kind of life? Which doesn't mean life is any better when I donโt write. On the contrary, it is far worse, wholly unbearable, and inevitably ends in madness. This is, of course, only on the assumption that I am a writer even when I donโt write - which is indeed the case; and a non-writing writer is, in fact, a monster courting insanity.
Franz KafkaSomeone must have slandered Josef K., for one morning, without having done anything truly wrong, he was arrested.
Franz KafkaI have no memory for things I have learned, nor things I have read, nor things experienced or heard, neither for people nor events; I feel that I have experienced nothing, learned nothing, that I actually know less than the average schoolboy, and that what I do know is superficial, and that every second question is beyond me. I am incapable of thinking deliberately; my thoughts run into a wall. I can grasp the essence of things in isolation, but I am quite incapable of coherent, unbroken thinking. I can't even tell a story properly; in fact, I can scarcely talk.
Franz Kafka