We shelter an angel within us. We must be the guardians of that angel.
JEAN COCTEAUPoetry is a religion without hope. The poet exhausts himself in its service, knowing that, in the long run, a masterpiece is nothing but the performance of a trained dog on very shaky ground.
More Jean Cocteau Quotes
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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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An original artist is unable to copy. So he has only to copy in order to be original.
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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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Fight any instinct to be humorless, for humorlessness is the worst of all absurdities.
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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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I’ve always preferred mythology to history. History is truth that becomes an illusion. Mythology is an illusion that becomes reality.
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A film is a petrified fountain of thought.
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The extreme limit of wisdom, that’s what the public calls madness.
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There’s no such thing as love; only proof of love.
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Such 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.
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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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Anything of any importance cannot help but be unrecognizable, since it bears no resemblance to anything already known.
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Since these mysteries exceed my grasp, I shall pretend to have organized them.
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When 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.
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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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