The joy of the young is to disobey.
JEAN COCTEAUIt is difficult to live without opium after having known it because it is difficult, after knowing opium, to take earth seriously. And unless one is a saint, it is difficult to live without taking earth seriously.
More Jean Cocteau Quotes
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After the writer’s death, reading his journal is like receiving a long letter.
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Fight any instinct to be humorless, for humorlessness is the worst of all absurdities.
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What the public criticizes in you, cultivate. It is you.
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May the devil himself splatter you with dung.
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Here I am trying to live, or rather, I am trying to teach the death within me how to live.
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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.
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Mirrors should reflect a little before throwing back images.
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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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Since the day of my birth, my death began its walk. It is walking toward me, without hurrying.
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One of the characteristics of the dream is that nothing surprises us in it. With no regret, we agree to live in it with strangers, completely cut off from our habits and friends.
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Such is the role of poetry. It unveils, in the strict sense of the word. It lays bare, under a light which shakes off torpor, the surprising things which surround us and which our senses record mechanically.
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I have a piece of great and sad news to tell you: I am dead.
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I only fear the death of others. For me, true death is that of the people I love.
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Since these mysteries exceed my grasp, I shall pretend to have organized them.
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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.
JEAN COCTEAU