Books Quotes by Franz Kafka

Books are a narcotic.

— Franz Kafka

A book must be the ax for the frozen sea within us.

— Franz Kafka

Some books seem like a key to unfamiliar rooms in one’s own castle.

— Franz Kafka

A book should serve as an axe to the ice inside us.

— Franz Kafka

Many a book is like a key to unknown chambers within the castle of one’s own self.

— Franz Kafka

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

— Franz Kafka

“A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us.”

— Franz Kafka

We need the books that affect us like a disaster

— Franz Kafka

All I am is literature, and I am not able or willing to be anything else.

— Franz Kafka

I believe that we should only read those books that bite and sting us. If a book does not rouse us with…

— Franz Kafka

“If the book we're reading doesn't wake us up with a blow on the head, what are we reading it for.”

— Franz Kafka

I believe that we should read only those books that bite and sting us. If a book we are reading does not…

— Franz Kafka

If the literature we are reading does not wake us, why then do we read it? A literary work must be an…

— Franz Kafka

“I ought to be able to invent words capable of blowing the odor of corpses in a direction other than straight into…

— Franz Kafka

If the book we are reading does not wake us, as with a fist hammering on our skull, why then do we…

— Franz Kafka

I hate everything that does not relate to literature, conversations bore me (even if they relate to literature), to visit people bores…

— Franz Kafka

My job is unbearable to me because it conflicts with my only desire and my only calling, which is literature. Since I…

— Franz Kafka

We need the books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more…

— Franz Kafka

...the books we need are the kind that act upon us like a misfortune, that make us suffer like the death of…

— Franz Kafka

“The books we need are of the kind that act upon us like a misfortune, that makes us suffer like the death…

— Franz Kafka

I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us. If the book we are reading…

— Franz Kafka

I see, these books are probably law books, and it is an essential part of the justice dispensed here that you should…

— Franz Kafka

“For when one is about to embark on some enterprise, it is precisely the books whose contents have nothing at all in…

— Franz Kafka

“The books were old and well worn, the cover of one of them had nearly broken through in its middle, and it…

— Franz Kafka

“How many words grace the pages of this book! They are supposed to bestir memory. As if words could remember! For words…

— Franz Kafka

“I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us. If the book we are reading…

— Franz Kafka

“I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound or stab us. If the book we're reading doesn't…

— Franz Kafka

If the book we are reading does not wake us, as with a fist hammering on our skull, why then do we…

— Franz Kafka

“If the book we are reading does not wake us, as with a fist hammering on our skulls, then why do we…

— Franz Kafka

“...That, however, was not what our scholar was concerned to prove; for he maintained that the Great Wall alone would provide for…

— Franz Kafka

“Altogether, I think we ought to read only books that bite and sting us. If the book we are reading doesn’t shake…

— Franz Kafka

A book should serve as the ax for the frozen sea within us.

— Franz Kafka

“I am nothing but literature, and can and want to be nothing else.”

— Franz Kafka

A book must be an ice-axe to break the seas frozen inside our soul.

— Franz Kafka

“Altogether, I think we ought to read only books that bite and sting us. If the book we are reading doesn't shake…

— Franz Kafka

“And thus it happens that the reader, the closer he comes to the novel's end, the more he wishes he were back…

— Franz Kafka

. . . The books we need are the kind that act upon us like a misfortune, that make us suffer like…

— Franz Kafka

I hate everything that does not relate to literature, conversations bore me (even when they relate to literature), to visit people bores…

— Franz Kafka