--- title: "3 Read Kafka Quotes by 3 authors" description: "Browse 3 Read Kafka quotes by 3 authors. Discover the best Read Kafka sayings and thoughts." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/7ef/milan-kundera-120_absurd_do-you-realize-that-people-don-t-know-ho_2062070.jpg" --- > [Do you realize that people don't know how to read Kafka simply because they want to decipher him? Instead of letting themselves…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/milan-kundera/do-you-realize-that-people-don-t-know-how-to-read-kafka-simply/) [Milan Kundera](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/milan-kundera/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/7ef/milan-kundera-120_absurd_do-you-realize-that-people-don-t-know-ho_2062070.jpg) > [He who has read Kafka's Metamorphosis and can look into his mirror unflinching may technically be able to read print, but is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-steiner/he-who-has-read-kafka-s-metamorphosis-and-can-look-into-his-mirror/) [George Steiner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-steiner/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/668/george-steiner-4683_able_he-who-has-read-kafka-s-metamorphosis-an_3016876.png) > [“I haven't re-read Kafka for forty years. I had a second read-through when first teaching English at the University of Warwick in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rick-gekoski/i-haven-t-re-read-kafka-for-forty-years-i-had-a-second-read-through/) [Rick Gekoski](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rick-gekoski/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f20/rick-gekoski-43052_books_i-haven-t-re-read-kafka-for-forty-years_3126348.jpg) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "ItemList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/read-kafka/#itemlist", "name": "Read Kafka Quotes", "numberOfItems": 3, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Do you realize that people don't know how to read Kafka simply because they want to decipher him? Instead of letting themselves be carried away by his unequaled imagination, they look for allegories — and come up with nothing but clichés: life is absurd (or it is not absurd), God is beyond reach (or within reach), etc. You can understand nothing about art, particularly modern art, if you do not understand that imagination is a value in itself.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Milan Kundera" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/milan-kundera/do-you-realize-that-people-don-t-know-how-to-read-kafka-simply/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/7ef/milan-kundera-120_absurd_do-you-realize-that-people-don-t-know-ho_2062070.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/7ef/milan-kundera-120_absurd_do-you-realize-that-people-don-t-know-ho_2062070.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/7ef/milan-kundera-120_absurd_do-you-realize-that-people-don-t-know-ho_2062070.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Do you realize that people don't know how to read Kafka simply because they want to decipher him? Instead of…” — Milan Kundera", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "He who has read Kafka's Metamorphosis and can look into his mirror unflinching may technically be able to read print, but is illiterate in the only sense that matters.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "George Steiner" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-steiner/he-who-has-read-kafka-s-metamorphosis-and-can-look-into-his-mirror/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/668/george-steiner-4683_able_he-who-has-read-kafka-s-metamorphosis-an_3016876.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/668/george-steiner-4683_able_he-who-has-read-kafka-s-metamorphosis-an_3016876.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/668/george-steiner-4683_able_he-who-has-read-kafka-s-metamorphosis-an_3016876.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“He who has read Kafka's Metamorphosis and can look into his mirror unflinching may technically be able to…” — George Steiner", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“I haven't re-read Kafka for forty years. I had a second read-through when first teaching English at the University of Warwick in the 1970s, but since then have not been tempted to return. The reason for this, I suspect, is that he is a young person's writer, not in the sense that only the young can appreciate him, but because on first exposure he is so comprehensively and unexpectedly formative that you may never feel the need to read him again. He becomes part of you, and your mind and spirit and view of the human condition are inhabited by his stories, his views, and especially his characters: by poor persecuted Josef K., by Gregor Samsa trapped in his rotting shell, by the hunger artist, yearning to find something, anything, that is actually good to eat, by poor K., who can't get into the castle to visit the Authorities. Kafkaesque: a world incomprehensible, alienating and threatening, absurd. We visit it with incomprehension and at our peril, lost at all points, disorientated, inoculated against faith, searchers for meaning in a book - and universe that either has none, or in which it lurks inaccessibly. Once you have read Kafka, you know this.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Rick Gekoski" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rick-gekoski/i-haven-t-re-read-kafka-for-forty-years-i-had-a-second-read-through/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f20/rick-gekoski-43052_books_i-haven-t-re-read-kafka-for-forty-years_3126348.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f20/rick-gekoski-43052_books_i-haven-t-re-read-kafka-for-forty-years_3126348.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f20/rick-gekoski-43052_books_i-haven-t-re-read-kafka-for-forty-years_3126348.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“I haven't re-read Kafka for forty years. 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