Jean Cocteau Quotes

Last night I suffered so much that there was nothing but my pain to distract me from my pain. I had to make it my sole diversion and with good reason. It had thus decreed. It attacked at every point. Then it distributed its troops. It encamped. It so manoeuvred that it was no longer intolerable at any one of its positions, but tolerable at them all. That is to say that the intolerable being distributed, it was this no longer, except as a whole. It was something both tolerable and intolerable. The organ that breaks down and the final chord that goes on for ever. ~ Jean Cocteau

Children believe what we tell them. They have complete faith in us. They believe that a rose plucked from a garden can plunge a family into conflict. They believe that the hands of a human beast will smoke when he slays a victim, and that this will cause him shame when a young maiden takes up residence in his home. They believe a thousand other simple things.
I ask of you a little of this childlike sympathy and, to bring us luck, let me speak four truly magic words, childhood's "Open Sesame":
Once upon a time ... ~ Jean Cocteau

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

The map of our life is folded in such a way that we cannot see one main road across it, but as it is opened out, we are constantly seeing new side roads. We think we are choosing, and we have no choice. ~ Jean Cocteau

Without resistance you can do nothing. ~ Jean Cocteau

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

Alas! I do not believe that inspiration falls from heaven. think it rather the result of a profound indolence. ~ Jean Cocteau

Do not take up cause against the inaccuracies printed about you. They are your protection. ~ Jean Cocteau

The art of genius is knowing how far out is too far. ~ Jean Cocteau

Success had put me on the wrong track and I did not know that there is a kind of success worse than failure, and a kind of failure worth all the success in the world. Neither did I know that the distant friendship of Rainer Maria Rilke would one day console me for having seen his lamp burn without knowing that it was signalling me to go and singe my wings against its flame. ~ Jean Cocteau

Not only should you not accept a prize. You should not try to deserve one either. ~ Jean Cocteau

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

My only politics have been friendship. ~ Jean Cocteau

Life is a horizontal fall. ~ Jean Cocteau

What is style? Saying complicated things in a simple way. ~ Jean Cocteau

What is history after all? History is facts which become lies in the end. ~ Jean Cocteau

Film will only became an art when its materials are as inexpensive as pencil and paper. ~ Jean Cocteau

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

An artist cannot speak about his art anymore than a plant can discuss horticulture. ~ Jean Cocteau

Each day in the mirror I watch death at work. ~ Jean Cocteau

We shelter an angel within us. We must be the guardians of that angel. ~ Jean Cocteau

Here I am trying to live, or rather, I am trying to teach the death within me how to live. ~ Jean Cocteau

Be a constant outrage to modesty There is nothing to fear: modesty is exercised only among the blind. ~ Jean Cocteau

A man's truest self realizations might require him, above all, to learn to close his eyes: to let himself be taken unawares, to follow his dark angel, to risk his illegal instincts. ~ Jean Cocteau

Watch yourself all your life in a mirror and you'll see Death at work like bees in a glass hive. ~ Jean Cocteau

The poet, by composing poems, uses a language that is neither dead nor living, that few people speak, and few people understand ... We are the servants of an unknown force that lives within us, manipulates us, and dictates this language to us. ~ Jean Cocteau

The public is never pleased with what we do, wanting always a copy of what we have done. ~ Jean Cocteau

I would like to be able to convey to you the sound of dead voices, to break open this unbearable tomb of sound, to wrest something more than silhouettes from vanished years and by some unimaginable trick let you hear the ha-ha-ha with which Catulle Mendès accompanied the slightest sentence, the muffled voice of Edmond Rostand or the laughter which Proust smeared over his face with his white-gloved hand and his beard. ~ Jean Cocteau

The joy of the young is to disobey ~ Jean Cocteau

I am burning myself up and will always do so. ~ Jean Cocteau

The worst tragedy for a poet is to be admired through being misunderstood. ~ Jean Cocteau

Perhaps I know to what extent I can go too far. ~ Jean Cocteau

A true photographer is as rare as a true poet or a true painter. ~ Jean Cocteau

There is always a period when a man with a beard shaves it off. This period does not last. He returns headlong to his beard. ~ Jean Cocteau

The obstinate miner
of the void
exploits
his fertile mine ~ Jean Cocteau

Nothing is more intriguing than a still photograph in the middle of a motion picture ... Just as an accident is a cry changed into silence and not a silence after a cry, photography is speed rendered motionless ... ~ Jean Cocteau

I have come to realize that the rhythm of the film is one of narrative. I am telling the story. It is as if I were hidden behind the screen, saying: "Then such and such a thing happened." The characters don't seem to be living a life of their own, but a life that is being narrated. Perhaps that's how it should be in a fairy tale. ~ Jean Cocteau

In two weeks, despite these notes, I shall no longer believe in what I am experiencing now. One must leave behind a trace of this journey which memory forgets. One must, when this is impossible, write or draw without responding to the romantic solicitations of pain, without enjoying suffering like music, tieing a pen to one's foot if need be, helping the doctors who can learn nothing from laziness. ~ Jean Cocteau

Appreciation of art is a moral erection, otherwise mere dilettantism. ~ Jean Cocteau

The composer opens the cage door for arithmetic, the draftsman gives geometry its freedom. ~ Jean Cocteau

Plant
it
It will sprout
But forget about the rustic festivities
For the explosive word falls harmlessly eternal through
the compact generations ~ Jean Cocteau

Expect neither reward nor beatitude. Return noble waves for ignoble. ~ Jean Cocteau

I grant you that, if you'll admit, as I do, that we are pawns of an unknown force that lives within us that dictates our actions and compels us to speak this language. ~ Jean Cocteau

The poet never asks for admiration; he wants to be believed. ~ Jean Cocteau

Style is a simple way of saying complicated things. ~ Jean Cocteau

See your disappointments as good fortune. One plan's deflation is another's inflation. ~ Jean Cocteau

You are always concentrated on the inner thing. The moment one becomes aware of the crowd, performs for the crowd, it is spectacle. ~ Jean Cocteau

Cultivate everything the critics hated in your first work - that's what makes you unique. ~ Jean Cocteau

The course of a river is almost always disapproved of by the source. ~ Jean Cocteau

A half empty bottle of wine is also half full, but half a lie will never be half true ~ Jean Cocteau

Living is a horizontal fall. ~ Jean Cocteau

And now I have to confess the unpardonable and the scandalous. I am a happy man. And I am going to tell you the secret of my happiness. It is quite simple. I love mankind. I love love. I hate hate. I try to understand and accept. ~ Jean Cocteau

To be audacious with tact, you have to know to what point you can go too far. ~ Jean Cocteau

The ear disapproves but tolerates certain musical pieces; transfer them into the domain of our nose, and we will be forced to flee. ~ Jean Cocteau

In Paris, everybody wants to be an actor; nobody is content to be a spectator. ~ Jean Cocteau

Everyone's pet is the most outstanding. This begets mutual blindness. ~ Jean Cocteau

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

The ability to laugh heartily is the sign of a healthy soul. ~ Jean Cocteau

The poet is a liar who always speaks the truth. ~ Jean Cocteau

I am happy to exhibit, but not to put myself on exhibition. ~ Jean Cocteau

There's no such thing as love; only proof of love. ~ Jean Cocteau

A film is a petrified fountain of thought. ~ Jean Cocteau

And history becomes legend and legend becomes history. ~ Jean Cocteau

Lack of manners is the sign of a hero. ~ Jean Cocteau

[C]ourageous film-makers, who take no account of success, prove that cinematography is a medium for realism and lyricism, and that everything depends on the angle from which one observes the spectacle of life ― the angle from which they constrain us to share a singular vision of things and emphasize the everyday miracle that lies within them. ~ Jean Cocteau

A true poet does not bother to be poetical. Nor does a nursery gardener scent his roses.
~ Jean Cocteau

After the writer's death, reading his journal is like receiving a long letter. ~ Jean Cocteau

Poetry is a machine that manufactures love. Its other virtues escape me. ~ Jean Cocteau

It seems to me that invisibility is the required provision of elegance. Elegance ceases to exist when it is noticed. ~ Jean Cocteau

Emotion resulting from a work of art is only of value when it is not obtained by sentimental blackmail. ~ Jean Cocteau

One should always talk well about oneself! The word spreads around and in the end, noone remembers where it started ~ Jean Cocteau

One must be a living man and a posthumous artist. ~ Jean Cocteau

The cinema is death at work. ~ Jean Cocteau

The preservation of friendship is seen as opportunism. You are required to be in one camp or the other. You are enjoined to cut your heartstrings if they extend across the barricade. ~ Jean Cocteau

Enough of clouds, waves, aquariums, water-sprites and nocturnal scents; what we need is music of the earth, everyday music..music one can live in like a house. ~ Jean Cocteau

A car can massage organs which no masseur can reach. It is the one remedy for the disorders of the great sympathetic nervous system. ~ Jean Cocteau

A picture is not a window ... an abstract refers to no reality but its own. ~ Jean Cocteau

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

Many years ago, as I was glancing through a catalogue of jokes for parties and weddings, I saw an item, 'An object difficult to pick up'. I haven't the slightest idea what that 'object' is or what it looks like, but I like knowing that it exists and I like thinking about it.
A work of art should also be 'an object difficult to pick up'. It must protect itself from vulgar pawing, which tarnishes and disfigures it. It should be made of such a shape that people don't know which way to hold it, which embarrasses and irritates the critics, incites them to be rude, but keeps it fresh. The less it's understood, the slower it opens its petals, the later it will fade. A work of art must make contact, be it even through a misunderstanding, but at the same time it must hide its riches, to reveal them little by little over a long period of time. A work that doesn't keep its secrets and surrenders itself too soon exposes itself to the risk of withering away, leaving only a dead stalk. ~ Jean Cocteau

Jean Cocteau--my artist friend since our early days--let himself be guided throughout his full life by the principle:

"I love to love.
I hate hatred."

With all my heart I agree with that, and I have never lost faith in the good. This is a source of strength for my work.

Once Cocteau said to me: "Your work contains the fire of the image of man--like the Phoenix . . . "

I believe in this light. It will not be extinguished. ~ Arno Breker

May the devil himself splatter you with dung. ~ Jean Cocteau

My method is simple: not to bother about poetry. It must come of its own accord. Merely whispering its name drives it away. ~ Jean Cocteau

I believe in luck: how else can you explain the success of those you dislike? ~ Jean Cocteau

French people are Italian people in a bad mood. ~ Jean Cocteau

My intention, this time, was to transfer a play to the screen while keeping its theatrical character. It was in some senses a matter of walking, invisibly, around the stage and catching the different aspects and nuances in the play, the urgency and the facial expressions that escape a spectator who cannot follow them in detail from a seat in the stalls.
Apart from that, I had noticed how effective a play becomes when you have a bird's-eye view from it, for example from the flies, that is to say from the viewpoint of a voyeur. The Audience is enclosed with the characters in a room lacking its fourth wall and listens to them on equal terms, without the element of my story conferred on scenes of intimacy by the whimsical shape of a keyhole."
"L'aigle à deux têtes is not History. It is a story, an invented story lived out by imaginary heroes, and I should never have dared venture into the realistic world of cinema without being able to rely on the help of Christian Bérard. He has a genius for situating whatever he touches, for giving it a depth in time and space and an appearance of truth that are literally inimitable." (...)

"A drama of this kind would be unacceptable, and almost impossible to tell, unless it was interpreted by superb actors who could instill grandeur and life into it. Edwige Feuillère and Jean Marais, applauded evening after evening in their parts in the play, surpass themselves on the screen and give of themselves, as I suggested above, e ~ Jean Cocteau

Never do what a specialist can do better. Discover your own specialty. Do not despair if your specialty appears to be more delicate, a lesser thing. Make up in finesse what you lose in force. ~ Jean Cocteau

How admirable the attitude of one who has made good use of the time granted him and who did not interfere by trying to be his own judge. Duration of human life belongs to those who mould each moment, sculpture it and do not trouble about the verdict. ~ Jean Cocteau

A prig always finds a last refuge in responsibility. ~ Jean Cocteau

What is style? For many people, a very complicated way of saying very simple things. According to us, a very simple way of saying very complicated things. ~ Jean Cocteau

Anything of any importance cannot help but be unrecognizable, since it bears no resemblance to anything already known. ~ Jean Cocteau

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

The artist is a kind of prison from which the works of art escape. ~ Jean Cocteau

Celebrity: I picture myself as a marble bust with legs to run everywhere. ~ Jean Cocteau

The purity of a revolution can last a fortnight. That is why a poet, the revolutionary of the soul, limits himself to the about-turns of the mind. ~ Jean Cocteau

My little Renoirs. Matisse describes having seen Renoir make these tiny canvases. When he had finished working, he would use up the color left in his brushes on them. ~ Jean Cocteau

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. ~ Jean Cocteau

Picasso said that everything is a miracle, that it's a miracle that we don't dissolve in our baths. ~ Jean Cocteau

I have a piece of great and sad news to tell you: I am dead. ~ Jean Cocteau

There are truths which one can only say after having won the right to say them. ~ Jean Cocteau

He has the manner of a giant with the look of a child, a lazy activeness, a mad wisdom, a solitude encompassing the world. ~ Jean Cocteau