Kafka (1991)

Jeremy Irons: Kafka

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Quotes 

• Chief Clerk : Oh, I know you were friendly with that poor fellow, what was his name -

  Franz Kafka : Raban... Eduard Raban.

  Chief Clerk : Yes, yes, Raban. But he was too like you. Even more like you, perhaps, than you are yourself.

• Gabriela : And you believe everything the authorities tell you?

  Franz Kafka : Well, I have no reason to doubt.

  Gabriela : They're authorities! That's reason enough.

• Franz Kafka : So, that's who the enemy is. Policemen and file clerks. Law and order, you might say.

  Gabriela : You think what we're doing is wrong? What would you suggest, then?

  Franz Kafka : Did any of you actually go up to the castle with Edward? You sit around twisting the facts to suit your inbred theories. In my experience the truth is not... that convenient.

• Doctor Murnau : A crowd is easier to control than an individual. A crowd has a common purpose. The purpose of the individual is always in question.

  Franz Kafka : That's what you're trying to eliminate, isn't it? Everything that makes one human being different from another. But you'll *never*, *never* reach a man's soul through a lens.

  Doctor Murnau : That rather depends on which end of the microscope you're on, doesn't it?

• Inspector Grubach : Kafka. Kafka, Kafka... Is that your real name?

  Franz Kafka : Yes. W-why shouldn't it be?

• Franz Kafka : I write by myself... for myself.

• Oscar : It's not too bad working here, though.

  Franz Kafka : You've never felt it was a horrible double life, from which there was probably no escape but insanity?

  Ludwig : Yes!

  Oscar : No.

  Ludwig : No.

• Chief Clerk : Kafka... I understand you fancy yourself as a writer.

  Franz Kafka : [shrugs]  In a small way.

  Chief Clerk : You should find a more... athletic hobby. Put some color in your cheeks.

• Oscar : [to Kafka]  Miss Rossman was here looking for you.

  Ludwig : Gabriela.

  Oscar : Do you know her?

  Franz Kafka : Do you?

  Oscar : Well, we saw her naked once.

• Franz Kafka : When a document is sent to the Medical Records Division, is it possible to recall it for a view?

  The Keeper of the Files : Of course not. Who'd want to let in a bunch of riff-raff off the street?

• Franz Kafka : I hope these realisations might help us both, and make our living, and our dying, easier.