The eyes of the dead are closed gently; we also have to open gently the eyes of the living.
JEAN COCTEAUYouth is certain what it rejects before it knows what it will accept.
More Jean Cocteau Quotes
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Poetry, being elegance itself, cannot hope to achieve visibility… It insists on living its own life.
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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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The dead drug leaves a ghost behind. At certain hours it haunts the house.
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The reward of art is not fame or success but intoxication: that is why so many bad artists are unable to give it up.
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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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The extreme limit of wisdom, that’s what the public calls madness.
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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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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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Art is not a pastime but a priesthood.
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Style is a simple way of saying complicated things.
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Art is a marriage of the conscious and the unconscious.
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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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I have seafoam in my veins, I understand the language of waves.
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Tact in audacity is knowing how far you can go without going too far.
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I have not looked at a newspaper in twenty years; if one is brought into the room, I flee. This is not because I am indifferent but because one cannot follow every road.
JEAN COCTEAU