What the public criticizes in you, cultivate. It is you.
JEAN COCTEAUWhat the public criticizes in you, cultivate. It is you.
JEAN COCTEAUIt is not I who become addicted, it is my body.
JEAN COCTEAUChildren and lunatics cut the Gordian knot which the poet spends his life patiently trying to untie.
JEAN COCTEAUI’ve always preferred mythology to history. History is truth that becomes an illusion. Mythology is an illusion that becomes reality.
JEAN COCTEAUWhen 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 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.
JEAN COCTEAUNot only should you not accept a prize. You should not try to deserve one either.
JEAN COCTEAUThe joy of the young is to disobey.
JEAN COCTEAUIf it has to choose who is to be crucified, the crowd will always save Barabbas.
JEAN COCTEAUI have seafoam in my veins, I understand the language of waves.
JEAN COCTEAUAfter the writer’s death, reading his journal is like receiving a long letter.
JEAN COCTEAUThe reward of art is not fame or success but intoxication: that is why so many bad artists are unable to give it up.
JEAN COCTEAUI have lost my seven best friends, which is to say God has had mercy on me seven times without realizing it. He lent a friendship, took it from me, sent me another.
JEAN COCTEAUArt 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 COCTEAUSince the day of my birth, my death began its walk. It is walking toward me, without hurrying.
JEAN COCTEAUSilence moves faster when it’s going backward.
JEAN COCTEAU