Appreciation of art is a moral erection, otherwise mere dilettantism.
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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Wealth is an inborn attitude of mind, like poverty. The pauper who has made his pile may flaunt his spoils, but cannot wear them plausibly.
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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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Mystery has its own mysteries, and there are gods above gods. We have ours, they have theirs. That is what’s known as infinity.
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Lying is the only art form that the public sanctions and instinctively prefers to reality.
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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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Nothing ever gets anywhere. The earth keeps turning round and gets nowhere. The moment is the only thing that counts.
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Beauty cannot be recognized with a cursory glance.
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Tact in audacity is knowing how far you can go without going too far.
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Mirrors should reflect a little before throwing back images.
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It is excruciating to be an unbeliever with a spirit that is deeply religious.
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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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Art is a marriage of the conscious and the unconscious.
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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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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 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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