French people are Italian people in a bad mood.
JEAN COCTEAUWhat the public criticizes in you, cultivate. It is you.
More Jean Cocteau Quotes
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The poet, by composing poems, uses a language that is neither dead nor living, that few people speak, and few people understand We are the servants of an unknown force that lives within us, manipulates us, and dictates this language to us.
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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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Every day in the mirror I watch death at work.
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I have a piece of great and sad news to tell you: I am dead.
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Tact in audacity is knowing how far you can go without going too far.
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A film is a petrified fountain of thought.
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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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The artist is a kind of prison from which the works of art escape.
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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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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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Art is science in the flesh.
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I have seafoam in my veins, I understand the language of waves.
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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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You have comfort. You don’t have luxury. And don’t tell me that money plays a part. The luxury I advocate has nothing to do with money. It cannot be bought. It is the reward of those who have NO Fear or Discomfort.
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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.
JEAN COCTEAU