Quotations

"A cage went in search of a bird."

— Franz Kafka, German-language writer, born 1883

"I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us. If the book we are reading doesn't wake us up with a blow on the head, what are we reading it for? We need the books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us."

— Franz Kafka, German-language writer, born 1883

"These are the seductive voices of the night; the Sirens, too, sang that way. It would be doing them an injustice to think that they wanted to seduce; they know they had claws and sterile wombs, and they lamented this aloud. They could not help it if their laments sounded so beautiful."

— Franz Kafka, German-language writer, born 1883

"You do not have to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen; simply wait. Do not even wait; be quiet still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked. It has no choice. It will roll in ecstasy at your feet."

— Franz Kafka, German-language writer, born 1883

"A belief is like a guillotine, just as heavy, just as light."

— Franz Kafka, German-language writer, born 1883

"I can’t think of any greater happiness than to be with you all the time, without interruption, endlessly, even though I feel that here in this world there’s no undisturbed place for our love, neither in the village nor anywhere else; and I dream of a grave, deep and narrow, where we could clasp each other in our arms as with clamps, and I would hide my face in you and you would hide your face in me, and nobody would ever see us any more."

— Frank Kafka, German-language writer, born 1883

"Life's splendor forever lies in wait about each one of us in all its fullness, but veiled from view, deep down, invisible, far off. It is there, though, not hostile, not reluctant, not deaf. If you summon it by the right word, by its right name, it will come."

— Franz Kafka, German-language writer, born 1883

"In Hawaii, we greet friends, loved ones or strangers with Aloha, which means love. Aloha is the key word to the universal spirit of real hospitality, which makes Hawaii renowned as the world's center of understanding and fellowship. Try meeting or leaving people with Aloha. You'll be surprised by their reaction. I believe it and it is my creed. Aloha to you."

— Duke Kahanamoku, American surfer, born 1890

"I find that Americans completely lack sensibility and good taste. They are boring, and they all have faces like unbaked rolls."

— Frida Kahlo, Mexican painter, born 1907

"I want to be inside your darkest everything."

— Frida Kahlo, Mexican painter, born 1907

"I was born a bitch. I was born a painter."

— Frida Kahlo, Mexican painter, born 1907

"What do I need feet for, when I have wings to fly?"

— Frida Kahlo, Mexican painter, born 1907

"If a scene isn't well written they'll drop your neckline to fill the void."

— Madeline Kahn, American actress, born 1942

"The deeper the blue becomes, the more strongly it calls man towards the infinite, awakening in him a desire for the pure and, finally, for the supernatural. The brighter it becomes, the more it loses its sound, until it turns into silent stillness and becomes white."

— Vassily Kandinsky, Russian painter, born 1866