French people are Italian people in a bad mood.
JEAN COCTEAUThe artist is a kind of prison from which the works of art escape.
More Jean Cocteau Quotes
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Mystery has its own mysteries, and there are gods above gods. We have ours, they have theirs. That is what’s known as infinity.
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Mirrors should think longer before they reflect.
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Fight any instinct to be humorless, for humorlessness is the worst of all absurdities.
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A true photographer is as rare as a true poet or a true painter.
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Cultivate everything the critics hated in your first work – that’s what makes you unique.
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I know that poetry is indispensable, but to what I could not say.
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After the writer’s death, reading his journal is like receiving a long letter.
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Tact in audacity is knowing how far you can go without going too far.
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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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The ability to laugh heartily is the sign of a healthy soul.
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I feel myself inhabited by a force or being — very little known to me. It gives the orders; I follow.
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Lying is the only art form that the public sanctions and instinctively prefers to reality.
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We must believe in luck. For how else can we explain the success of those we don’t like?
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Never do what a specialist can do better. Discover your own specialty. Do not despair if your specialty appears to be more delicate, a lesser thing. Make up in finesse what you lose in force.
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Elegance ceases to exist when it is noticed.
JEAN COCTEAU