Wealth is an inborn attitude of mind, like poverty. The pauper who has made his pile may flaunt his spoils, but cannot wear them plausibly.
JEAN COCTEAUWealth is an inborn attitude of mind, like poverty. The pauper who has made his pile may flaunt his spoils, but cannot wear them plausibly.
JEAN COCTEAUNothing ever gets anywhere. The earth keeps turning round and gets nowhere. The moment is the only thing that counts.
JEAN COCTEAUDo as the beautiful woman: see to your figure and your petticoats. Though, of course, I am not speaking literally.
JEAN COCTEAUI feel myself inhabited by a force or being — very little known to me. It gives the orders; I follow.
JEAN COCTEAUOne must not mistake majority for truth.
JEAN COCTEAUWhat the public criticizes in you, cultivate. It is you.
JEAN COCTEAUAll good music resembles something. Good music stirs by its mysterious resemblance to the objects and feelings which motivated it.
JEAN COCTEAUI’ve always preferred mythology to history. History is truth that becomes an illusion. Mythology is an illusion that becomes reality.
JEAN COCTEAUSuch 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.
JEAN COCTEAUThe eyes of the dead are closed gently; we also have to open gently the eyes of the living.
JEAN COCTEAUAn artist cannot speak about his art any more than a plant can discuss horticulture.
JEAN COCTEAUMan 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 COCTEAUAfter you have written a thing and you reread it, there is always the temptation to fix it up, to improve it, to remove its poison, blunt its sting.
JEAN COCTEAUSince these mysteries exceed my grasp, I shall pretend to have organized them.
JEAN COCTEAUPoetry is indispensable – if I only knew what for.
JEAN COCTEAUTact in audacity is knowing how far you can go without going too far.
JEAN COCTEAU