The job of the poet (a job which can’t be learned) consists of placing those objects of the visible world which have become invisible due to the glue of habit, in an unusual position which strikes the soul and gives them a tragic force.
JEAN COCTEAUSince the day of my birth, my death began its walk. It is walking toward me, without hurrying.
More Jean Cocteau Quotes
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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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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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The only way to kill death is through photography.
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If it has to choose who is to be crucified, the crowd will always save Barabbas.
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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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Love is mainly an affair of short spasms. If these spasms disappoint us, love dies. It is very seldom that it weathers the experience and becomes friendship.
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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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I feel myself inhabited by a force or being — very little known to me. It gives the orders; I follow.
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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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If a poet has a dream, it is not of becoming famous, but of being believed.
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Every day in the mirror I watch death at work.
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The ability to laugh heartily is the sign of a healthy soul.
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What the public criticizes in you, cultivate. It is you.
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I have a piece of great and sad news to tell you: I am dead.
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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.
JEAN COCTEAU