In July, 1923, Franz Kafka was staying at the vacation colony of Volksheim, where he was loved and cared for by Dora Diamant, the cook. Pietr Citati recounts a dinner given in honor of the author, the guests including a number of intimidated children. One of them, who was more afraid than the others, got up from the table to get something, but he stumbled and fell. The others began to laugh. But before the laughter could break out further, humiliating the child forever, Kafka said loudly in a tone of ardent admiration: "How well you fell! And how magnificently you got up!"
-- from les Ecrivains sont dans leur assiette by Salim Jay (quoted in The Ravenous Muse, by Karen Elizabeth Gordon.)
-- sdh
