Jean Cocteau Quotes About Art

Quotes about: Art

• Art is a marriage of the conscious and the unconscious.

  Jean Cocteau

  Art, Conscious, Art Is

• Art is not a pastime but a priesthood.

  Jean Cocteau

  Art, Priesthood, Art Is

• Art produces ugly things which frequently become more beautiful with time. Fashion, on the other hand, produces beautiful things which always become ugly with time.

  Jean Cocteau

  Inspirational, Beautiful, Fashion

  New York World Telegram & Sun, August 21, 1960.

• Art is science in the flesh.

  Jean Cocteau

  Art, Philosophy, History

  Jean Cocteau, Margaret Crosland (1972). “Cocteau's world: an anthology of writings”, Owen

• Children and lunatics cut the Gordian knot which the poet spends his life patiently trying to untie.

  Jean Cocteau

  Life, Art, Children

• A film is a petrified fountain of thought.

  Jean Cocteau

  Art, Gambling, Film

  Esquire magazine, February 1961.

• Film will only became an art when its materials are as inexpensive as pencil and paper.

  Jean Cocteau

  Art, Raw Materials, Paper

• Poetry is indispensable - if I only knew what for.

  Jean Cocteau

  Art, Poetry, Indispensable

  "The Necessity of Art". Book by Ernst Fischer, 1959.

• Art is science made flesh.

  Jean Cocteau

  Art, Science, Flesh

• An artist cannot speak about his art any more than a plant can discuss horticulture.

  Jean Cocteau

  Art, Speak, Plant

  Newsweek, May 16, 1955.

• The reward of art is not fame or success but intoxication: that is why so many bad artists are unable to give it up.

  Jean Cocteau

  Art, Congratulations, Giving

• Art produces ugly things which frequently become beautiful with time.

  Jean Cocteau

  Beautiful, Fashion, Art

• One must be a living man and a posthumous artist.

  Jean Cocteau

  Art, Artist, Men

  "Cock and harlequin: Notes concerning music". Book by Jean Cocteau, 1921.

• Emotion resulting from a work of art is only of value when it is not obtained by sentimental blackmail.

  Jean Cocteau

  Art, Sentimental, Emotion

  Jean Cocteau (1926). “A call to order: written between the years 1918 and 1926 and including Cock and harlequin, Professional secrets, and other critical essays”, Haskell House Pub Ltd

• The actual tragedies of life bear no relation to one's preconceived ideas. In the event, one is always bewildered by their simplicity, their grandeur of design, and by that element of the bizarre which seems inherent in them.

  Jean Cocteau

  Life, Art, Philosophy

  Jean Cocteau (1957). “The Holy Terrors”, p.170, New Directions Publishing

• The poet never asks for admiration; he wants to be believed.

  Jean Cocteau

  Art, Philosophy, History

  Jean Cocteau (1990). “Opium: The Illustrated Diary of His Cure”, Peter Owen Publishers

• I shall never forget what I saw at the Museum of Modern Art: in a spotless schoolroom, fifty little girls painting away at tables covered with brushes, pots, tubes, bowls, staring into space and sticking out their tongues like the clever animals that ring a bell, tongues lolling and eyes vague. Teachers supervise these young creators of abstract art and slap their wrists if what they paint represents something and dangerously inclines toward realism. The mothers - still at the Picasso stage - are not admitted.

  Jean Cocteau

  Girl, Mother, Teacher

• Look out! Be on your guard, because alone of all the arts, music moves all around you.

  Jean Cocteau

  Art, Moving, Looks

  Jean Cocteau, Margaret Crosland (1972). “Cocteau's world: an anthology of writings”, Owen

• The only work of art which succeeds is that which fails.

  Jean Cocteau

  Success, Art, Succeed

• The job of the poet (a job which can't be learned) consists of placing those objects of the visible world which have become invisible due to the glue of habit, in an unusual position which strikes the soul and gives them a tragic force.

  Jean Cocteau

  Art, Jobs, Giving

• The ultimate politeness in art consists of speaking only to those who are able to uncover and measure its relationships. Anything else is symbolic, and symbolism is merely transcendental imagery.

  Jean Cocteau

  Art, Symbolism, Able

  "Diary of an Unknown". Book by Jean Cocteau, 1988.

• Appreciation of art is a moral erection, otherwise mere dilettantism.

  Jean Cocteau

  Appreciation, Art, Moral

• The artist is a kind of prison from which the works of art escape.

  Jean Cocteau

  Art, Kind, Prison

• Lying is the only art form that the public sanctions and instinctively prefers to reality.

  Jean Cocteau

  Art, Lying, Reality

• The art of genius is knowing how far out is too far.

  Jean Cocteau

  Art, Knowing, Genius

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