Karl Kraus Writing Quotations

Journalist: a person without any ideas but with an ability to express them; a writer whose skill is improved by a deadline: the more time he has, the worse he writes.

A writer is someone who can make a riddle out of an answer.

Someone who can write aphorisms should not fritter away his time in essays.

Journalists write because they have nothing to say, and have something to say because they write.

An idea's birth is legitimate if one has the feeling that one is catching oneself plagiarizing oneself.

When I read, it is not acted literature; but what I write is written acting.

A good writer does not receive anywhere near the number of poison-pen letters that is commonly assumed. Among a hundred jackassesthere are not ten who will admit to being jackasses, and at most one who will put it in writing.

Most critics write critiques which are by the authors they write critiques about. That would not be so bad, but then most authorswrite works which are by the critics who write critiques about them.

My readers think that I write for the day because my writings are based on the day. So I shall have to wait until my writings are obsolete. Then they may acquire timeliness.

To write a novel may be pure pleasure. To live a novel presents certain difficulties. As for reading a novel, I do my best to get out of it.

What is a historian? Someone who doesn't write well enough to work on a daily.

A journalist is stimulated by a deadline. He writes worse when he has time

My request that my writing be read twice has aroused great indignation. Unjustly so. After all, I do not ask that they be read once.

When I don't make any progress, it is because I have bumped into the wall of language. Then I draw back with a bloody head. And would like to go on.

Insights into erotic life belong to art, not education. But sometimes these have to be spelled out for the illiterates. And it ismainly a matter of convincing the illiterates, for they are the ones who write the penal code.