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.
JEAN COCTEAUI 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.
More Jean Cocteau Quotes
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I have seafoam in my veins, I understand the language of waves.
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What the public criticizes in you, cultivate. It is you.
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An original artist is unable to copy. So he has only to copy in order to be original.
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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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Art is not a pastime but a priesthood.
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The joy of the young is to disobey.
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Appreciation of art is a moral erection, otherwise mere dilettantism.
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An artist cannot speak about his art any more than a plant can discuss horticulture.
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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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Elegance ceases to exist when it is noticed.
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We shelter an angel within us. We must be the guardians of that angel.
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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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After 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.
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I love cats because I enjoy my home; and little by little, they become its visible soul.
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Lying is the only art form that the public sanctions and instinctively prefers to reality.
JEAN COCTEAU