When a work appears to be ahead of its time, it is only the time that is behind the work.
JEAN COCTEAUWe must believe in luck. For how else can we explain the success of those we don’t like?
More Jean Cocteau Quotes
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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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A film is a petrified fountain of thought.
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The artist is a kind of prison from which the works of art escape.
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An artist cannot speak about his art any more than a plant can discuss horticulture.
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The poet is a liar who always speaks the truth.
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Such is the role of poetry. It unveils, in the strict sense of the word. It lays bare, under a light which shakes off torpor, the surprising things which surround us and which our senses record mechanically.
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Anything of any importance cannot help but be unrecognizable, since it bears no resemblance to anything already known.
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I have a piece of great and sad news to tell you: I am dead.
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Elegance ceases to exist when it is noticed.
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What the public criticizes in you, cultivate. It is you.
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Since these mysteries exceed my grasp, I shall pretend to have organized them.
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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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Art is not a pastime but a priesthood.
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Every day in the mirror I watch death at work.
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Not only should you not accept a prize. You should not try to deserve one either.
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