Poetry is a religion with no hope.
JEAN COCTEAUWhen a work appears to be ahead of its time, it is only the time that is behind the work.
More Jean Cocteau Quotes
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If it has to choose who is to be crucified, the crowd will always save Barabbas.
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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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Cultivate everything the critics hated in your first work – that’s what makes you unique.
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Every day in the mirror I watch death at work.
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Man seeks to escape himself in myth, and does so by any means at his disposal. Drugs, alcohol, or lies. Unable to withdraw into himself, he disguises himself. Lies and inaccuracy give him a few moments of comfort.
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The eyes of the dead are closed gently; we also have to open gently the eyes of the living.
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The extreme limit of wisdom, that’s what the public calls madness.
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Poetry, being elegance itself, cannot hope to achieve visibility… It insists on living its own life.
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Mirrors should think longer before they reflect.
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After the writer’s death, reading his journal is like receiving a long letter.
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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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The speed of a runaway horse counts for nothing.
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When a work appears to be ahead of its time, it is only the time that is behind the work.
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Art produces ugly things which frequently become more beautiful with time. Fashion, on the other hand, produces beautiful things which always become ugly with time.
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Children and lunatics cut the Gordian knot which the poet spends his life patiently trying to untie.
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