Such is the role of poetry. It unveils, in the strict sense of the word. It lays bare, under a light which shakes off torpor, the surprising things which surround us and which our senses record mechanically.
JEAN COCTEAUCultivate everything the critics hated in your first work – that’s what makes you unique.
More Jean Cocteau Quotes
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Fight any instinct to be humorless, for humorlessness is the worst of all absurdities.
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Art is not a pastime but a priesthood.
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One must not mistake majority for truth.
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I feel myself inhabited by a force or being — very little known to me. It gives the orders; I follow.
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The joy of the young is to disobey.
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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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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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Since the day of my birth, my death began its walk. It is walking toward me, without hurrying.
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Mirrors should reflect a little before throwing back images.
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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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Elegance ceases to exist when it is noticed.
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Continue reading Proust. His magnificent intelligence is particularly fond of describing stupidity. Which is ultimately exhausting.
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French people are Italian people in a bad mood.
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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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Whatever the world condemns you for, make it your own. It is yourself.
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