Beauty cannot be recognized with a cursory glance.
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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Anything of any importance cannot help but be unrecognizable, since it bears no resemblance to anything already known.
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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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If it has to choose who is to be crucified, the crowd will always save Barabbas.
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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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Living is a horizontal fall.
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I have a piece of great and sad news to tell you: I am dead.
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Since these mysteries exceed my grasp, I shall pretend to have organized them.
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And now I have to confess the unpardonable and the scandalous. I am a happy man. And I am going to tell you the secret of my happiness. It is quite simple. I love mankind. I love love. I hate hate. I try to understand and accept.
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Not only should you not accept a prize. You should not try to deserve one either.
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Film will only became an art when its materials are as inexpensive as pencil and paper.
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Appreciation of art is a moral erection, otherwise mere dilettantism.
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After the writer’s death, reading his journal is like receiving a long letter.
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An artist cannot speak about his art any more than a plant can discuss horticulture.
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The speed of a runaway horse counts for nothing.
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What the public criticizes in you, cultivate. It is you.
JEAN COCTEAU






