Every day in the mirror I watch death at work.
JEAN COCTEAUThe 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.
More Jean Cocteau Quotes
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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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An artist cannot speak about his art any more than a plant can discuss horticulture.
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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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Anything of any importance cannot help but be unrecognizable, since it bears no resemblance to anything already known.
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I have lost my seven best friends, which is to say God has had mercy on me seven times without realizing it. He lent a friendship, took it from me, sent me another.
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The ability to laugh heartily is the sign of a healthy soul.
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Poetry is indispensable – if I only knew what for.
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French people are Italian people in a bad mood.
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What the public criticizes in you, cultivate. It is you.
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The dead drug leaves a ghost behind. At certain hours it haunts the house.
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The speed of a runaway horse counts for nothing.
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All good music resembles something. Good music stirs by its mysterious resemblance to the objects and feelings which motivated it.
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It is difficult to live without opium after having known it because it is difficult, after knowing opium, to take earth seriously. And unless one is a saint, it is difficult to live without taking earth seriously.
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My method is simple: not to bother about poetry. It must come of its own accord. Merely whispering its name drives it away.
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After the writer’s death, reading his journal is like receiving a long letter.
JEAN COCTEAU