Jean Cocteau Quotes

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  I love cats because I enjoy my home; and little by little, they become its visible soul.

  Jean Cocteau

  Dog, Cat, Home

  76 Copy quote

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• Mirrors should think longer before they reflect.

  Jean Cocteau

  Thinking, Mirrors, Appearance

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• Style is a simple way of saying complicated things.

  Jean Cocteau

  Fashion, Simple, Style

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• The eyes of the dead are closed gently; we also have to open gently the eyes of the living.

  Jean Cocteau

  Teaching, Eye

  Jean Cocteau, Margaret Crosland (1972). “Cocteau's world: an anthology of writings”, Owen

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• I only fear the death of others. For me, true death is that of the people I love

  Jean Cocteau

  People

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• Since the day of my birth, my death began its walk. It is walking toward me, without hurrying.

  Jean Cocteau

  Death, Ugly Things, Dying

  "Postambule". "La Fin du Potomac". Book by Jean Cocteau, 1939.

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• An artist cannot speak about his art any more than a plant can discuss horticulture.

  Jean Cocteau

  Art, Speak, Plant

  Newsweek, May 16, 1955.

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• Nothing ever gets anywhere. The earth keeps turning round and gets nowhere. The moment is the only thing that counts.

  Jean Cocteau

  What Matters, Past Present Future, Earth

  Jean Cocteau, Margaret Crosland (1972). “Cocteau's world: an anthology of writings”, Owen

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• If a poet has a dream, it is not of becoming famous, but of being believed.

  Jean Cocteau

  Dream, Becoming, Poet

  Jean Cocteau (1964). “The journals of Jean Cocteau”

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• Living is a horizontal fall.

  Jean Cocteau

  Fall, Horizontal

  Jean Cocteau (1990). “Opium: The Illustrated Diary of His Cure”, Peter Owen Publishers

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• The prettiest dresses are worn to be taken off.

  Jean Cocteau

  Funny, Hilarious, Sexy

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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.

  Jean Cocteau

  Play, Luxury, Comfort

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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.

  Jean Cocteau

  Running, Dog, Knowing

  "Diary of an Unknown". Book by Jean Cocteau, 1988.

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• We shelter an angel within us. We must be the guardians of that angel.

  Jean Cocteau

  Angel, Shelter, Guardian

  "Cock and harlequin: Notes concerning music". Book by Jean Cocteau, 1921.

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• You've never seen death? Look in the mirror every day and you will see it like bees working in a glass hive.

  Jean Cocteau

  Eyeglasses, Mirrors, Advice

  Quoted by Ned Rorem on "The Dick Cavett Show" at PBS, October 06, 1981.

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• Art is a marriage of the conscious and the unconscious.

  Jean Cocteau

  Art, Conscious, Art Is

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• 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 Cocteau

  Love, Moving, Drug

  Jean Cocteau (1990). “Opium: The Illustrated Diary of His Cure”, Peter Owen Publishers

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• We must believe in luck. For how else can we explain the success of those we don't like?

  Jean Cocteau

  Inspirational, Funny, Witty

  Remark after his election to Académie Française, 1955.

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• What is line? It is life. A line must live at each point along its course in such a way that the artist's presence makes itself felt above that of the model... With the writer, line takes precedence over form and content. It runs through the words he assembles. It strikes a continuous note unperceived by ear or eye. It is, in a way, the soul's style, and if the line ceases to have a life of its own, if it only describes an arabesque, the soul is missing and the writing dies.

  Jean Cocteau

  Running, Eye, Writing

  "The Difficulty of Being". Book by Jean Cocteau, 1947.

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• Beauty cannot be recognized with a cursory glance.

  Jean Cocteau

  Glances

  "Diary of an Unknown". Book by Jean Cocteau, 1988.

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• An original artist is unable to copy. So he has only to copy in order to be original.

  Jean Cocteau

  Artist, Order, Original Art

  "Le Coq et l'Arlequin". Essay by Jean Cocteau, 1918.

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• I have seafoam in my veins, I understand the language of waves.

  Jean Cocteau

  Veins, Language, Wave

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• Lying is the only art form that the public sanctions and instinctively prefers to reality.

  Jean Cocteau

  Art, Lying, Reality

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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.

  Jean Cocteau

  Art, Jobs, Giving

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• Do as the beautiful woman: see to your figure and your petticoats. Though, of course, I am not speaking literally.

  Jean Cocteau

  Beautiful, Beautiful Women, Figures

  "Diary of an Unknown". Book by Jean Cocteau, 1988.

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