Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka
Franz Kafkawas a German-language writer of novels and short stories who is widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work, which fuses elements of realism and the fantastic, typically features isolated protagonists faced by bizarre or surrealistic predicaments and incomprehensible social-bureaucratic powers, and has been interpreted as exploring themes of alienation, existential anxiety, guilt, and absurdity. His best known works include "Die Verwandlung", Der Process, and Das Schloss. The term Kafkaesque has entered the English...
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth3 July 1883
CityPrague, Czech Republic
Two tasks at the beginning of your life: to narrow your orbit more and more, and ever and again to check whether you are not in hiding somewhere outside your orbit.
The door could not be heard slamming; they had probably left it open, as is the custom in homes where a great misfortune has occurred.
If this is what you came for, then I didn't send for you. Kafka (note to himself in journal)
Every word first looks around in every direction before letting itself be written down by me.
there is nothing bad to fear; once you have crossed that threshold, all is well. Another world, and you do not have to speak
I am too tired, I must try to rest and sleep, otherwise I am lost in every respect. What an effort to keep alive! Erecting a monument does not require an expenditure of so much strength.
There they lay, but not in the forgetfulness of the previous night. She was seeking and he was seeking, they raged and contorted their faces and bored their heads into each others bosom in the urgency of seeking something, and their embraces and their tossing limbs did not avail to make them forget, but only reminded them of what they sought
Don't despair, not even over the fact that you don't despair.
My guiding principle is this: Guilt is never to be doubted.
In the struggle between yourself and the world second the world.
One must not cheat anyone, not even the world of its victory.
May I kiss you then? On this miserable paper? I might as well open the window and kiss the night air.
Self-control means wanting to be effective at some random point in the infinite radiations of my spiritual existence.
The spirit becomes free only when it ceases to be a support.