It is excruciating to be an unbeliever with a spirit that is deeply religious.
JEAN COCTEAUPoetry is a religion with no hope.
More Jean Cocteau Quotes
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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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A film is a petrified fountain of thought.
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The eyes of the dead are closed gently; we also have to open gently the eyes of the living.
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The public is never pleased with what we do, wanting always a copy of what we have done.
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Film will only became an art when its materials are as inexpensive as pencil and paper.
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Poetry is indispensable – if I only knew what for.
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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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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.
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The poet is a liar who always speaks the truth.
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Appreciation of art is a moral erection, otherwise mere dilettantism.
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I have seafoam in my veins, I understand the language of waves.
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Elegance ceases to exist when it is noticed.
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The ability to laugh heartily is the sign of a healthy soul.
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Listen carefully to first criticisms made of your work. Note just what it is about your work that critics don’t like – then cultivate it. That’s the only part of your work that’s individual and worth keeping.
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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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Mirrors should think longer before they reflect.
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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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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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Youth can only assert itself through the conviction that its ventures surpass all others and resemble nothing.
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Style is a simple way of saying complicated things.
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I know that poetry is indispensable, but to what I could not say.
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You’ve never seen death? Look in the mirror every day and you will see it like bees working in a glass hive.
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Tact in audacity is knowing how far you can go without going too far.
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I have a piece of great and sad news to tell you: I am dead.
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We shelter an angel within us. We must be the guardians of that angel.
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Poetry is a religion without hope. The poet exhausts himself in its service, knowing that, in the long run, a masterpiece is nothing but the performance of a trained dog on very shaky ground.
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