Whatever the world condemns you for, make it your own. It is yourself.
JEAN COCTEAUNothing ever gets anywhere. The earth keeps turning round and gets nowhere. The moment is the only thing that counts.
More Jean Cocteau Quotes
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Here I am trying to live, or rather, I am trying to teach the death within me how to live.
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I 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.
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I love cats because I enjoy my home; and little by little, they become its visible soul.
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Wealth is an inborn attitude of mind, like poverty. The pauper who has made his pile may flaunt his spoils, but cannot wear them plausibly.
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After the writer’s death, reading his journal is like receiving a long letter.
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A true poet does not bother to be poetical. Nor does a nursery gardener scent his roses.
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Lying is the only art form that the public sanctions and instinctively prefers to reality.
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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.
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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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The prettiest dresses are worn to be taken off.
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The artist is a kind of prison from which the works of art escape.
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What the public criticizes in you, cultivate. It is you.
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I’ve always preferred mythology to history. History is truth that becomes an illusion. Mythology is an illusion that becomes reality.
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I feel myself inhabited by a force or being — very little known to me. It gives the orders; I follow.
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