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 COCTEAUYouth is certain what it rejects before it knows what it will accept.
More Jean Cocteau Quotes
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Art is a marriage of the conscious and the unconscious.
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The public is never pleased with what we do, wanting always a copy of what we have done.
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I have a piece of great and sad news to tell you: I am dead.
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Film will only became an art when its materials are as inexpensive as pencil and paper.
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Not only should you not accept a prize. You should not try to deserve one either.
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The joy of the young is to disobey.
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French people are Italian people in a bad mood.
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A true photographer is as rare as a true poet or a true painter.
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The artist is a kind of prison from which the works of art escape.
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We are in a period of such individualism that one no longer speaks of disciples; one speaks of thieves.
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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.
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The poet is a liar who always speaks the truth.
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An original artist is unable to copy. So he has only to copy in order to be original.
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And now I have to confess the unpardonable and the scandalous. I am a happy man. And I am going to tell you the secret of my happiness. It is quite simple. I love mankind. I love love. I hate hate. I try to understand and accept.
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When I write, I disturb. When I show a film, I disturb. When I exhibit my painting, I disturb, and I disturb if I don’t. I have a knack for disturbing.
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