Goodreads helps you follow your favorite authors. Be the first to learn about new releases!
Start by following Jean Cocteau.
Showing 1-30 of 228
“Living is a horizontal fall.”
― Opium: The Illustrated Diary of His Cure
― Opium: The Illustrated Diary of His Cure
“I love cats because I enjoy my home; and little by little, they become its visible soul.”
―
―
“Mirrors should think longer before they reflect.”
―
―
“What the public criticizes in you, cultivate. It is you.”
―
―
“If a poet has a dream, it is not of becoming famous, but of being believed.”
―
―
“The prettiest dresses are worn to be taken off.”
―
―
“Be yourself. The world worships the original.”
―
―
“There's no such thing as love; only proof of love.”
―
―
“The poet doesn't invent. He listens. ”
―
―
“Art is science made clear.”
―
―
“The day of my birth, my death began its walk. It is walking toward me, without hurrying.”
―
―
“We must believe in luck. For how else can we explain the success of those we don't like? ”
―
―
“What uniform can I wear to hide my heavy heart?
It is too heavy. It will always show.
Jacques felt himself growing gloomy again. He was well aware that to live on earth a man must follow its fashions, and hearts were no longer worn.”
― Le Grand Ecart / Thomas L'Imposteur / Les Enfants Terribles / Le fantome de
It is too heavy. It will always show.
Jacques felt himself growing gloomy again. He was well aware that to live on earth a man must follow its fashions, and hearts were no longer worn.”
― Le Grand Ecart / Thomas L'Imposteur / Les Enfants Terribles / Le fantome de
“An artist cannot speak about his art anymore than a plant can discuss horticulture.”
―
―
“I am a lie that always speaks the truth.”
―
―
“I've always preferred mythology to history. History is truth that becomes an illusion. Mythology is an illusion that becomes reality.”
―
―
“Listen carefully to first criticisms made of your work. Note just what it is about your work that critics don't like - then cultivate it. That's the only part of your work that's individual and worth keeping.”
―
―
“Art is a marriage of the conscious and the unconscious.”
―
―
“I am burning myself up and will always do so.”
―
―
“It is excruciating to be an unbeliever with a spirit that is deeply religious.”
―
―
“At all costs the true world of childhood must prevail, must be restored; that world whose momentous, heroic, mysterious quality is fed on airy nothings, whose substance is so ill-fitted to withstand the brutal touch of adult inquisition.”
― The Holy Terrors
― The Holy Terrors
“When I write, I disturb. When I show a film, I disturb. When I exhibit my painting, I disturb, and I disturb if I don't. I have a knack for disturbing.”
―
―
“A little too much is just enough for me.”
―
―
“All spiritual journeys are martyrdoms”
―
―
“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.”
―
―
“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.”
―
―
“I'm not willing just to be tolerated. That wounds my love of love and of liberty.”
― The White Book
― The White Book
“A true poet does not bother to be poetical. Nor does a nursery gardener scent his roses.
”
―
”
―
“The greatest masterpiece in literature is only a dictionary out of order.”
― Le Potomak
― Le Potomak
“The smell of opium is the least stupid smell in the world.”
―
―




