A true poet does not bother to be poetical. Nor does a nursery gardener scent his roses.
JEAN COCTEAUThe 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.
More Jean Cocteau Quotes
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Lying is the only art form that the public sanctions and instinctively prefers to reality.
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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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It 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.
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Mirrors should reflect a little before throwing back images.
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I know that poetry is indispensable, but to what I could not say.
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French people are Italian people in a bad mood.
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The dead drug leaves a ghost behind. At certain hours it haunts the house.
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Anything of any importance cannot help but be unrecognizable, since it bears no resemblance to anything already known.
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Fight any instinct to be humorless, for humorlessness is the worst of all absurdities.
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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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Art is not a pastime but a priesthood.
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Not only should you not accept a prize. You should not try to deserve one either.
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The ability to laugh heartily is the sign of a healthy soul.
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Youth can only assert itself through the conviction that its ventures surpass all others and resemble nothing.
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The only way to kill death is through photography.
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