Jean Cocteau (1889 – 1963)
French poet, novelist, painter, and filmmaker.
Tact in audacity is knowing how far you can go without going too far.
Wealth is an inborn attitude of mind, like poverty. The pauper who has made his pile may flaunt his spoils, but cannot wear them plausibly.
Originality consists in trying to be like everybody else — and failing.
Victor Hugo was a madman who thought he was Victor Hugo.
An artist cannot speak about his art any more than a plant can discuss horticulture.
The poet never asks for admiration; he wants to be believed.
See your disappointments as good fortune. One plan's deflation is another's inflation.
When a work appears to be ahead of its time, it is only the time that is behind the work.
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.
Man seeks to escape himself in myth, and does so by any means at his disposal. Drugs, alcohol, or lies. Unable to withdraw into himself, he disguises himself. Lies and inaccuracy give him a few moments of comfort.
Art is science made clear.
A prig always finds a last refuge in responsibility.
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.
That pile of paper on his left side went on living like the watch on a dead soldier’s wrist.
Be a constant outrage to modesty There is nothing to fear: modesty is exercised only among the blind.
Be helpful, even if it compromises you.
Allow the power of the soul to grow as flagrant as the power of sex.
I am a lie who always speaks the truth.
Compromise yourself. Obscure your own trail.
Expect neither reward nor beatitude. Return noble waves for ignoble.