Franz Kafka, aged 5, 1888

Franz Kafka, Unknown photographer 

“This photo was taken in 1906 and was said to have hung over his mother’s bed.

Kafka was well known for sending his own portraits to his various flames. To Kafka it was a form of self-sacrifice by giving up his likeness to the perception of others.”

May I kiss you then? On this miserable paper? I might as well open the window and kiss the night air.

Franz Kafka, By Jason Seiler

Everything you say is boring and incomprehensible,” she said, “but that alone doesn’t make it true.

When it became clear in my organism that writing was the most productive direction for my being to take, everything rushed in that direction and left empty all those abilities which were directed toward the joys of sex, eating, drinking, philosophical reflection and above all music.

Books are a narcotic.

Franz Kafka