Style is a simple way of saying complicated things.
JEAN COCTEAUAn artist cannot speak about his art any more than a plant can discuss horticulture.
More Jean Cocteau Quotes
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There’s no such thing as love; only proof of love.
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Cultivate everything the critics hated in your first work – that’s what makes you unique.
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Appreciation of art is a moral erection, otherwise mere dilettantism.
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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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An artist cannot speak about his art any more than a plant can discuss horticulture.
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Art produces ugly things which frequently become more beautiful with time. Fashion, on the other hand, produces beautiful things which always become ugly with time.
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The artist is a kind of prison from which the works of art escape.
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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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Poetry 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.
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Nothing ever gets anywhere. The earth keeps turning round and gets nowhere. The moment is the only thing that counts.
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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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Mirrors should think longer before they reflect.
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Every day in the mirror I watch death at work.
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If it has to choose who is to be crucified, the crowd will always save Barabbas.
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Art is not a pastime but a priesthood.
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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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The ability to laugh heartily is the sign of a healthy soul.
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The speed of a runaway horse counts for nothing.
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The poet is a liar who always speaks the truth.
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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 extreme limit of wisdom, that’s what the public calls madness.
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It is excruciating to be an unbeliever with a spirit that is deeply religious.
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Art is a marriage of the conscious and the unconscious.
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Since these mysteries exceed my grasp, I shall pretend to have organized them.
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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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Picasso said that everything is a miracle, that it’s a miracle that we don’t dissolve in our baths.
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