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Franz Kafka Quotes about Writing

All Franz Kafka Quotes Art Belief Bones Chaos Choices Courage Darkness Death Depression Doubt Earth Effort Eternity Evil Failing Fate Fear Fighting Freedom Giving Goodness Guilt Hate Health Heart Home Human Nature Individuality Inspirational Joy Kissing Life Literature Loneliness Love Lying Morning Past Reading Reality Religion Responsibility Seduction Sleep Solitude Soul Spring Struggle Suffering Time Travel Understanding Waiting Wall Writing quotes

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.

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.

Writing, Thinking, Darkness

Franz Kafka (2013). “Letters to Ottla and the Family”, Schocken

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

Writing, Voice, Unrest

A lawyer is a person who writes a 10,000-word document and calls it a "brief."

Writing, Lawyer, Persons

A non-writing writer is a monster courting insanity.

Writing, Insanity, Monsters

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

Loneliness, Being Alone, Writing

Writing means revealing oneself to excess.

Writing, Mean, Excess

Franz Kafka (2013). “Letters to Felice”, p.156, Schocken

Writing [is] a form of prayer.

Prayer, Writing, Form

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

Book, Writing, Thinking

Franz Kafka (1979). “The Basic Kafka”, p.290, Simon and Schuster

I am away from home and must always write home, even if any home of mine has long since floated away into eternity.

Home, Writing, Long

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

Writing, Men, Solitude

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.

Writing, Sleep, Night

Writing is a sweet, wonderful reward.

Sweet, Writing, Rewards

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.

Writing, Sleep, Mind

Franz Kafka (2013). “Letters to Felice”, p.593, Schocken

What I write is different from what I say, what I say is different from what I think, what I think is different from what I ought to think and so it goes further into the deepest darkness.

Communication, Writing, Thinking

Writing sustains me. But wouldn’t it be better to say it sustains this kind of life? Which doesn't mean life is any better when I don’t 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 don’t write - which is indeed the case; and a non-writing writer is, in fact, a monster courting insanity.

Writing, Mean, Insanity

To write prescriptions is easy, but to come to an understanding with people is hard.

Writing, People, Understanding

Franz Kafka (2009). “The Metamorphosis: And Other Stories”, p.140, Schocken

In a way, I was safe writing

Writing, Safe, Way

The old incapacity. Interrupted my writing for barely ten days and already cast out. Once again prodigious efforts stand before me. You have to dive down, as it were, and sink more rapidly than that which sinks in advance of you.

Writing, Effort, Incapacity

Franz Kafka (1970). “The Trial”

The person I am in the company of my sisters has been entirely different from the person I am in the company of other people. Fearless, powerful, surprising, moved as I otherwise am only when I write.

Powerful, Writing, People

Franz Kafka (1983). “Explain to me some stories of Kafka: complete texts with explanations”, Gordian Pr Inc

Hold fast to the diary from today on! Write regularly! Don't surrender! Even if no salvation should come, I want to be worthy of it every moment.

Writing, Diaries, Want

Franz Kafka (1965). “The Diaries of Franz Kafka”

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