Of what value is a civilization that can't toast a piece of bread as ordered?

Kafka is one of my very favorite writers. Kafka's fictional world is already so complete that trying to follow in his steps is not just pointless, but quite risky, too. What I see myself doing, rather, is writing novels where, in my own way, I dismantle the fictional world of Kafka that itself dismantled the existing novelistic system.

It's basically impossible for everybody's justice to prevail or everybody's happiness to triumph, so chaos takes over.

She lived frugally, but her meals were the only things on which she deliberately spent her money. She never compromised on the quality of her groceries, and drank only good-quality wines.

Exhaustion pays no mind to age or beauty. Like rain and earthquakes and hail and floods.

Everything has boundaries. the same holds true with thought. you shouldn't fear boundaries, but you also should not be afraid of destroying them. that's what is most important if you want to be free: respect for and exasperation with boundaries. what's really important in life is always the things that are secondary.

If you can’t understand it without an explanation, you can’t understand it with an explanation.