I have seafoam in my veins, I understand the language of waves.
JEAN COCTEAUWhen I write, I disturb. When I show a film, I disturb. When I exhibit my painting, I disturb, and I disturb if I don’t. I have a knack for disturbing.
More Jean Cocteau Quotes
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One of the characteristics of the dream is that nothing surprises us in it. With no regret, we agree to live in it with strangers, completely cut off from our habits and friends.
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A true photographer is as rare as a true poet or a true painter.
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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.
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When a work appears to be ahead of its time, it is only the time that is behind the work.
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I have not looked at a newspaper in twenty years; if one is brought into the room, I flee. This is not because I am indifferent but because one cannot follow every road.
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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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Poetry, being elegance itself, cannot hope to achieve visibility… It insists on living its own life.
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Poetry is indispensable – if I only knew what for.
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Since the day of my birth, my death began its walk. It is walking toward me, without hurrying.
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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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Art is not a pastime but a priesthood.
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Whatever the world condemns you for, make it your own. It is yourself.
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Everything one does in life, even love, occurs in an express train racing toward death. To smoke opium is to get out of the train while it is still moving. It is to concern oneself with something other than life or death.
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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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The extreme limit of wisdom, that’s what the public calls madness.
JEAN COCTEAU