Man does not make a statement of a general nature without betraying himself completely, without unintentionally putting his whole ego into it, without presenting the basic theme and original problem of his life somewhere in the parable.
– Thomas Mann (via)
Everyone carries a room about inside him. This fact can even be proved by means of the sense of hearing. If someone walks fast and one pricks up one's ears and listens, say in the night, when everything round about is quiet, one hears, for instance, the rattling of a mirror not quite firmly fastened to the wall.
– Kafka
Notes from a Room