,
Goodreads helps you follow your favorite authors. Be the first to learn about new releases!
Start by following Jean Cocteau.

Jean Cocteau Jean Cocteau > Quotes

 

 (?)
Quotes are added by the Goodreads community and are not verified by Goodreads. (Learn more)
Showing 1-30 of 228
“Living is a horizontal fall.”
Jean Cocteau, Opium: The Illustrated Diary of His Cure
“I love cats because I enjoy my home; and little by little, they become its visible soul.”
Jean Cocteau
“Mirrors should think longer before they reflect.”
Jean Cocteau
“What the public criticizes in you, cultivate. It is you.”
Jean Cocteau
“If a poet has a dream, it is not of becoming famous, but of being believed.”
Jean Cocteau
“The prettiest dresses are worn to be taken off.”
Jean Cocteau
“Be yourself. The world worships the original.”
Jean Cocteau
“There's no such thing as love; only proof of love.”
Jean Cocteau
“The poet doesn't invent. He listens. ”
Jean Cocteau
“Art is science made clear.”
Jean Cocteau
tags: art
“The day of my birth, my death began its walk. It is walking toward me, without hurrying.”
Jean Cocteau
tags: death
“We must believe in luck. For how else can we explain the success of those we don't like? ”
Jean Cocteau
“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.”
Jean Cocteau, 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.”
Jean Cocteau
“I am a lie that always speaks the truth.”
Jean Cocteau
“I've always preferred mythology to history. History is truth that becomes an illusion. Mythology is an illusion that becomes reality.”
Jean Cocteau
“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.”
Jean Cocteau
“Art is a marriage of the conscious and the unconscious.”
Jean Cocteau
“I am burning myself up and will always do so.”
Jean Cocteau
tags: opium
“It is excruciating to be an unbeliever with a spirit that is deeply religious.”
Jean Cocteau
“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.”
Jean Cocteau, 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.”
Jean Cocteau
“A little too much is just enough for me.”
Jean Cocteau
“All spiritual journeys are martyrdoms”
Jean Cocteau
“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.”
Jean Cocteau
“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.”
jean cocteau
“I'm not willing just to be tolerated. That wounds my love of love and of liberty.”
Jean Cocteau, The White Book
“A true poet does not bother to be poetical. Nor does a nursery gardener scent his roses.

Jean Cocteau
“The greatest masterpiece in literature is only a dictionary out of order.”
Jean Cocteau, Le Potomak
“The smell of opium is the least stupid smell in the world.”
Jean Cocteau

« previous 1 3 4 5 6 7 8
All Quotes | Add A Quote
The Holy Terrors The Holy Terrors
8,036 ratings
La Machine infernale La Machine infernale
2,155 ratings
The Infernal Machine and Other Plays The Infernal Machine and Other Plays
1,273 ratings
Open Preview
Opium: The Illustrated Diary of His Cure Opium
1,064 ratings