The thornbush is old obstacle in the road. It must catch fire if you want to go further. - Franz Kafka

There are times when my longing for you overwhelms me […] so often I can think of you only with teeth clenched.

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.

it is not necessary to accept everything as true, one must only accept it as necessary.' 'A melancholy conclusion,' said K. 'It turns lying into a universal principle.