The artist is a kind of prison from which the works of art escape.
JEAN COCTEAUI know that poetry is indispensable, but to what I could not say.
More Jean Cocteau Quotes
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We shelter an angel within us. We must be the guardians of that angel.
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Do as the beautiful woman: see to your figure and your petticoats. Though, of course, I am not speaking literally.
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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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Listen carefully to first criticisms made of your work. Note just what it is about your work that critics don’t like – then cultivate it. That’s the only part of your work that’s individual and worth keeping.
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After the writer’s death, reading his journal is like receiving a long letter.
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You have comfort. You don’t have luxury. And don’t tell me that money plays a part. The luxury I advocate has nothing to do with money. It cannot be bought. It is the reward of those who have NO Fear or Discomfort.
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Lying is the only art form that the public sanctions and instinctively prefers to reality.
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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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The extreme limit of wisdom, that’s what the public calls madness.
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If a poet has a dream, it is not of becoming famous, but of being believed.
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An artist cannot speak about his art any more than a plant can discuss horticulture.
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Here I am trying to live, or rather, I am trying to teach the death within me how to live.
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The 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.
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It is excruciating to be an unbeliever with a spirit that is deeply religious.
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The public is never pleased with what we do, wanting always a copy of what we have done.
JEAN COCTEAU