Everything one does in life, even love, occurs in an express train racing toward death. To smoke opium is to get out of the train while it is still moving. It is to concern oneself with something other than life or death.
JEAN COCTEAUWhen a work appears to be ahead of its time, it is only the time that is behind the work.
More Jean Cocteau Quotes
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The reward of art is not fame or success but intoxication: that is why so many bad artists are unable to give it up.
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Every day in the mirror I watch death at work.
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It is difficult to live without opium after having known it because it is difficult, after knowing opium, to take earth seriously. And unless one is a saint, it is difficult to live without taking earth seriously.
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Love is mainly an affair of short spasms. If these spasms disappoint us, love dies. It is very seldom that it weathers the experience and becomes friendship.
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Mirrors should think longer before they reflect.
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Poetry is a religion with no hope.
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The extreme limit of wisdom, that’s what the public calls madness.
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Mirrors should reflect a little before throwing back images.
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Style is a simple way of saying complicated things.
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Silence moves faster when it’s going backward.
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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 poet is a liar who always speaks the truth.
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One of the characteristics of the dream is that nothing surprises us in it. With no regret, we agree to live in it with strangers, completely cut off from our habits and friends.
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The prettiest dresses are worn to be taken off.
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Since these mysteries exceed my grasp, I shall pretend to have organized them.
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