Jean Cocteau Quotes - Page 3

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You've never seen death? Look in the mirror every day and you will see it like bees working in a glass hive.

Jean Cocteau

Glasses, Mirrors, Advice

Quoted by Ned Rorem on "The Dick Cavett Show" at PBS, October 06, 1981.

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Whatever the public blames you for, cultivate it; it is yourself.

Jean Cocteau

Gay, Lgbt, Blame

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Understand that some of your enemies are amongst your best friends.

Jean Cocteau

Enemy, Your Best Friend

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

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One is either judge or accused. The judge sits, the accused stands. Live on your feet.

Jean Cocteau

Feet, Judging, Accused

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

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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

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It is excruciating to be an unbeliever with a spirit that is deeply religious.

Jean Cocteau

Religious, Spirit, Unbelievers

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An original artist is unable to copy. So he has only to copy in order to be original.

Jean Cocteau

Artist, Order, Original Art

"Le Coq et l'Arlequin". Essay by Jean Cocteau, 1918.

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Poetry is a religion without hope. The poet exhausts himself in its service, knowing that, in the long run, a masterpiece is nothing but the performance of a trained dog on very shaky ground.

Jean Cocteau

Running, Dog, Knowing

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

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I have not looked at a newspaper in twenty years; if one is brought into the room, I flee. This is not because I am indifferent but because one cannot follow every road.

Jean Cocteau

Years, Twenties, Rooms

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I know that poetry is indispensable, but to what I could not say.

Jean Cocteau

Poetry, Indispensable, Poetry Is

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Not only should you not accept a prize. You should not try to deserve one either.

Jean Cocteau

Trying, Accepting, Should

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Youth is certain what it rejects before it knows what it will accept.

Jean Cocteau

Youth, Accepting, Certain

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If it has to choose who is to be crucified, the crowd will always save Barabbas.

Jean Cocteau

Crucifixion Of Christ, Crowds, Crucifixion

Le Coq et l'Arlequin (1918) in Le Rappel ... l'ordre (Recall to Order, 1926) p. 39

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I am burning myself up and will always do so.

Jean Cocteau

Burning

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

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After you have written a thing and you reread it, there is always the temptation to fix it up, to improve it, to remove its poison, blunt its sting.

Jean Cocteau

Writing, Temptation, Poison

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I have a piece of great and sad news to tell you: I am dead.

Jean Cocteau

Death, Dying, News

"Visite". Discours du Grand Sommeil, 1920.

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Without resistance you can do nothing

Jean Cocteau

Resistance, Can Do

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Everything one does in life, even love, occurs in an express train racing toward death. To smoke opium is to get out of the train while it is still moving. It is to concern oneself with something other than life or death.

Jean Cocteau

Love, Moving, Drug

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

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When we awake it is the animal, the plant, that thinks in us. Primitive thought without the least disguise. We see a terrible universe, because we see clearly. A little later, intelligence introduces its impeding contrivances. It brings the little toys which man invents in order to hide the void. It is then that we think we are seeing clearly. We attribute our uneasiness to the miasmas of the brain as it passes from dream to reality.

Jean Cocteau

Dream, Animal, Reality

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When a work appears to be ahead of its time, it is only the time that is behind the work.

Jean Cocteau

Time, Funny Basketball, Originality

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

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At all costs the true world of childhood must prevail, must be restored; that world whose momentous, heroic, mysterious quality is fed on airy nothings, whose substance is so ill-fitted to withstand the brutal touch of adult inquisition.

Jean Cocteau

Childhood, Quality, Adults

Jean Cocteau (1966). “The Holy Terrors (Les Enfants Terribles)”, p.23, New Directions Publishing

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What is line? It is life. A line must live at each point along its course in such a way that the artist's presence makes itself felt above that of the model... With the writer, line takes precedence over form and content. It runs through the words he assembles. It strikes a continuous note unperceived by ear or eye. It is, in a way, the soul's style, and if the line ceases to have a life of its own, if it only describes an arabesque, the soul is missing and the writing dies.

Jean Cocteau

Running, Writing, Eye

"The Difficulty of Being". Book by Jean Cocteau, 1947.

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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

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The poet Paul Éluard says that to understand my film version of Beauty and the Beast, you must love your dog more than your car.

Jean Cocteau

Dog, Love You, Car

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The public only takes up yesterday as a stick to beat today.

Jean Cocteau

Yesterday, Criticism, Today

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”

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Born: July 5, 1889
Died: October 11, 1963
Occupation: Poet
Cite this Page: Citation

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