Samsa Quotes & Sayings

All he knew was that he was now a human whose name was Gregor Samsa. — Haruki Murakami

As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect. — Franz Kafka

One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that in his bed he had been changed into a monstrous bug ... — Franz Kafka

All right, you mangy bag of bones. One of us will meet the Spirits tonight. - Danel Blackwalker — Daniel Calhoun

Samsa looked down in dismay at his naked body. How ill-formed it was! Worse than ill-formed. It possessed no means of self-defense. Smooth white skin (covered by only a perfunctory amount of hair) with fragile blue blood vessels visible through it; a soft, unprotected belly; ludicrous, impossibly shaped genitals; gangly arms and legs (just two of each!); a scrawny, breakable neck; an enormous, misshapen head with a tangle of stiff hair on its crown; two absurd ears, jutting out like a pair of seashells. Was this thing really him? Could a body so preposterous, so easy to destroy (no shell for protection, no weapons for attack), survive in the world? — Haruki Murakami

AS GREGOR SAMSA AWOKE from unsettling dreams one morning, he found himself transformed in his bed into a monstrous vermin. — Anonymous

Most animals are like the unfortunate Gregor Samsa after metamorphosis. They are Kafka-creatures, organisms with rich thoughts and emotions but no system for translating what they think into something that they can express to others. — Marc Hauser

The first line reads, "As Gregor Samsa awoke that morning from uneasy dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect ... " When I read that line I thought to myself that I didn't know anyone was allowed to write things like that. If I had known, I would have started writing a long time ago — Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Over the table, on which an unpacked line of fabric samples was all spread out
Samsa was a traveling salesman
hung the picture which he had recently cut out of a glossy magazine and lodged in a pretty gilt frame. It showed a lady done up in a fur hat and a fur boa, sitting upright and raising up against the viewer a heavy fur muff in which her whole forearm had disappeared. — Franz Kafka

I think that vampires are sexy. The idea of them being untouchable has been really exciting for people. — Jenn Proske

Refusing! And she is after me with a broom, trying to sweep my rotten carcass into the open. Why, shades of Gregor Samsa! Hello Alex, goodbye Franz! "You better tell me you're sorry, you, or else! And I don't mean maybe either!" I am five, maybe six, and she is or-elsing me and not-meaning-maybe as though the firing squad is already outside, lining the street with newspaper preparatory to my execution. — Philip Roth

One night a friend lent me a book of short stories by Franz Kafka. I went back to the pension where I was staying and began to read The Metamorphosis. The first line almost knocked me off the bed. I was so surprised. The first line reads, "As Gregor Samsa awoke that morning from uneasy dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect ... " When I read the line I thought to myself that I didn't know anyone was allowed to write things like that. If I had known, I would have started writing a long time ago. So I immediately started writing short stories. — Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Will I see you again?' Samsa asked one last time.
'If you think of someone enough, you're sure to meet them again,' she said in parting. This time there was real warmth in her voice. — Haruki Murakami

America is a huge country, filled with great tracts of open land. If you're not careful, you can get lost in it - lost emotionally, mentally, spiritually. — Noah Hawley

I've always gone with Kafka's model of establishing the world from the first line, as in Kafka's famous line from Metamorphosis, "Gregor Samsa woke up from uneasy dreams to find himself transformed into a gigantic insect" (or beetle or cockroach, depending on the translation). I have to have that first line before I can go further. — Laurie Foos

Gregor Samsa awoke one morning to find himself turned into an enormous symbol. — Howard Mittelmark

You think you want the blue skies, the open road, but really you want the tunnel, you want to know how the story ends. — Jenny Offill

It is time to know more about would-be terrorists, to profile for terrorists and to actively discriminate based on suspicious terrorist information. — Newt Gingrich

I have this theory about divorce. I have a theory that is never a tragedy for adults and always a tragedy for children. Adults can lose weight, find someone nicer, get their life back. Divorce gives grown-ups a get-out-of-jail-free card. It is the children who pay the price, and pay it for the rest of their lives. But we can't admit that, all us scarred veterans of the divorce court, because it would mean admitting that we have inflicted wounds on our children that they will carry for the rest of their lives. — Tony Parsons

Please leave my computer alone.. The only cookies I want to get are the ones I can eat. — Heather Wolf

Nykyrian's features sharpened. "Do we need to evac you?" Maris shook his head. "No. Darling's in consummate turmoil and agony, and like Cai said, I'm the only one he'll let in a room with him right now. If I have to die for his friendship, so be it. I won't leave him alone when he's hurting this much." But — Sherrilyn Kenyon

WHEN Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from troubled dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a monstrous insect. — Franz Kafka

Samsa certainly had no idea what lay ahead. He was in the dark about everything: the future, of course, but the present and the past as well . What was right, and what was wrong? Just learning how to dress was a riddle. — Haruki Murakami

I find it funny how I effortlessly combine existential fear with the wish not to be embarrassed. I often think of poor Gregor Samsa first waking up as a bug. This — John Carpmael

Then his head sank to the floor of its own accord and from his nostrils came the last faint flicker of his breath. — Franz Kafka

Don't be color blind, be color brave. Embrace diversity as a competitive advantage. — Mellody Hobson

One morning Gregor Samsa found himself, in bed, transformed into a monstrous vermin. — Franz Kafka

Where the realist would say, "One day Gregor Samsa woke up to the realization that he was like a cockroach," the expressionist heightens or intensifies reality by turning the metaphor to fact. — John Gardner

If I'm not on tour, I can run down to the comedy club and do a little stand-up. If you're an actor, you can't go - I guess there's forms of it. — Louis C.K.

Samsa sat there for a long time with his eyes closed. Then, making up his mind, he stood, grabbed his black walking stick, and headed for the stairs. He would return to the second floor and figure out the proper way to dress. For now, at least, that would be his mission. The world was waiting for him to learn. — Haruki Murakami

Look to the Lord and not to the world for your ideas and ideals about men and women. — Sheri L. Dew

I have long admired the visceral storytelling and moral complexity of John Vaillant's brilliant non-fiction about humankind's tragically ambivalent relationship with the natural world. Now he brings his abundant literary gifts to a debut novel set in a very real borderland in which human beings are themselves treated like animals. The Jaguar's Children is a beautifully rendered lament for an imperiled culture and the brave lives that would preserve it. You should read it. — John Burnham Schwartz