“I need solitude for my writing; not 'like a hermit' - that wouldn't be enough - but like a dead man.”
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Franz Kafka 266
author 1883–1924Related quotes

Source: Factotum (1975), Ch. 17
Context: I got into bed, opened the bottle, worked the pillow into a hard knot behind my back, took a deep breath, and sat in the dark looking out of the window. It was the first time I had been alone for five days. I was a man who thrived on solitude; without it I was like another man without food or water. Each day without solitude weakened me. I took no pride in my solitude; but I was dependent on it. The darkness of the room was like sunlight to me. I took a drink of wine.

“Shall I, like an hermit, dwell
On a rock or in a cell?”
Poem reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

Скажи, пожалюста, душя моя, когда я буду жить по-человечески, т. е. работать и не нуждаться? Теперь я и работаю, и нуждаюсь, и порчу свою репутацию необходимостью работать херовое.
Letter to the Alexander Chekhov (April 14, 1887)
Letters

Source: Nature and Selected Essays
“Knock her dead, my man."
"Oh no." Xcor shook his head."That shan't be necessary. This one I like.”
Source: The King