Janouch Gustav Quotes

“For healthy people, life is only an unconscious and unavowed flight from the consciousness that one day one must die. Illness is always a warning and a trial of strength. And so illness, pain, [and] suffering are the most important sources of religious feeling.”
― Franz Kafka

“Do you know about Poe's Life?"

"I only know what I've been told by Kampf. It seems that Poe was a notorious drunkard."

Kafka frowned.

"Poe was ill. He was a poor devil who had no defenses against the world. So he fled into drunkenness. Imagination only served him as a crutch. He wrote tales of mystery to make himself at home in the world. That's perfectly natural. Imagination has fewer pitfalls than reality does.”
― Gustav Janouch, Conversations with Kafka