After the writer’s death, reading his journal is like receiving a long letter.
JEAN COCTEAUIf a poet has a dream, it is not of becoming famous, but of being believed.
More Jean Cocteau Quotes
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It is excruciating to be an unbeliever with a spirit that is deeply religious.
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Nothing ever gets anywhere. The earth keeps turning round and gets nowhere. The moment is the only thing that counts.
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The speed of a runaway horse counts for nothing.
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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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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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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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I love cats because I enjoy my home; and little by little, they become its visible soul.
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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.
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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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Children and lunatics cut the Gordian knot which the poet spends his life patiently trying to untie.
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The artist is a kind of prison from which the works of art escape.
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The ability to laugh heartily is the sign of a healthy soul.
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I only fear the death of others. For me, true death is that of the people I love.
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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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Since the day of my birth, my death began its walk. It is walking toward me, without hurrying.
JEAN COCTEAU