Tact in audacity is knowing how far you can go without going too far.
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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Art is not a pastime but a priesthood.
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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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The poet, by composing poems, uses a language that is neither dead nor living, that few people speak, and few people understand We are the servants of an unknown force that lives within us, manipulates us, and dictates this language to us.
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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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We shelter an angel within us. We must be the guardians of that angel.
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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 a poet has a dream, it is not of becoming famous, but of being believed.
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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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I have a piece of great and sad news to tell you: I am dead.
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Not only should you not accept a prize. You should not try to deserve one either.
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Elegance ceases to exist when it is noticed.
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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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Children and lunatics cut the Gordian knot which the poet spends his life patiently trying to untie.
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All good music resembles something. Good music stirs by its mysterious resemblance to the objects and feelings which motivated it.
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