Youth is certain what it rejects before it knows what it will accept.
JEAN COCTEAUEvery day in the mirror I watch death at work.
More Jean Cocteau Quotes
-
-
My method is simple: not to bother about poetry. It must come of its own accord. Merely whispering its name drives it away.
JEAN COCTEAU -
Continue reading Proust. His magnificent intelligence is particularly fond of describing stupidity. Which is ultimately exhausting.
JEAN COCTEAU -
Elegance ceases to exist when it is noticed.
JEAN COCTEAU -
Poetry, being elegance itself, cannot hope to achieve visibility… It insists on living its own life.
JEAN COCTEAU -
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 -
The poet is a liar who always speaks the truth.
JEAN COCTEAU -
An original artist is unable to copy. So he has only to copy in order to be original.
JEAN COCTEAU -
You’ve never seen death? Look in the mirror every day and you will see it like bees working in a glass hive.
JEAN COCTEAU -
Whatever the world condemns you for, make it your own. It is yourself.
JEAN COCTEAU -
Every day in the mirror I watch death at work.
JEAN COCTEAU -
Art is not a pastime but a priesthood.
JEAN COCTEAU -
I feel myself inhabited by a force or being — very little known to me. It gives the orders; I follow.
JEAN COCTEAU -
Since the day of my birth, my death began its walk. It is walking toward me, without hurrying.
JEAN COCTEAU -
I have a piece of great and sad news to tell you: I am dead.
JEAN COCTEAU -
Beauty cannot be recognized with a cursory glance.
JEAN COCTEAU






