8 Quotes on Writing by Franz Kafka

Franz Kafka was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short story writer. He trained as a lawyer and worked full-time at an insurance company. Few of his works were published during his lifetime. In spite of only writing in his spare time, he is regarded as one of the most important figures of 20th-century literature. His most widely known works include The Metamorphosis and The Trial.

Franz Kafka on Writing

“I write differently from what I speak, I speak differently from what I think, I think differently from the way I ought to think, and so it all proceeds into deepest darkness.”

#510

Franz Kafka

“A non-writing writer is a monster courting insanity.”

#511

Franz Kafka

“I need solitude for my writing; not 'like a hermit' — that wouldn't be enough — but like a dead man.”

#512

Franz Kafka

“Writing is utter solitude, the descent into the cold abyss of oneself.”

#513

Franz Kafka

“I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us.”

#652

Franz Kafka

“I wanted to escape the unrest, to shut out the voices around me and within me, so I write.”

#653

Franz Kafka

“Writing is a deeper sleep than death. Just as one wouldn't pull a corpse from its grave, I can't be dragged from my desk at night.”

#654

Franz Kafka

“Each of us has his own way of emerging from the underworld, mine is by writing. That's why the only way I can keep going, if at all, is by writing, not through rest and sleep. I am far more likely to achieve peace of mind through writing than the capacity to write through peace.”

#655

Franz Kafka

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