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Jean Cocteau Quotes (1889-1963)
Poet, Painter, Novelist
About Jean Cocteau
Jean Maurice EugΓ¨ne ClΓ©ment Cocteau (5 July 1889 β 11 October 1963) was a French poet, novelist, painter, and filmmaker.
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Explore our curated collection of the most famous and impactful Jean Cocteau quotes.
βLife is a horizontal fall.β
βCompromise yourself. Obscure your own trail.β
βOne must be a living man and a posthumous artist.β
βA prig always finds a last refuge in responsibility.β
βWhat the public criticizes in you, cultivate. It is you.β
βBe helpful, even if it compromises you.β
βUnderstand that some of your enemies are amongst your best friends.β
βBeauty cannot be recognized with a cursory glance.β
βPoetry is indispensable β if I only knew what for.β
βConsider metaphysics as an extension of the physical.β
βKnow that your work speaks only to those on the same wavelength as you.β
βThe skin of all of us is responsive to gypsy songs and military marches.β
Jean Cocteau Quotes by Topic
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Jean Cocteau on Poets 2 quotes
βThe worst fate of a poet is to be admired without being understood.β
Jean Cocteau on Film
Jean Cocteau on Human sexual activity
Jean Cocteau on Fashion
βStyle is a simple way of saying complicated things.β
Jean Cocteau on Deflation
βSee your disappointments as good fortune. One plan's deflation is another's inflation.β
Jean Cocteau on Pauperism
Jean Cocteau on Ethics
βPoetry is an ethic. By ethic I mean a secret code of behavior, a discipline constructed and conducted according to the capabilities of a man who rejects the falsifications of the categorical imperative.β
Jean Cocteau on Categorical imperative
βPoetry is an ethic. By ethic I mean a secret code of behavior, a discipline constructed and conducted according to the capabilities of a man who rejects the falsifications of the categorical imperative.β
What Jean Cocteau Said About Others
Discover personal opinions Jean Cocteau shared regarding contemporaries.
Jean Cocteau on Orson Welles 2 quotes
βOrson Welles is a poet through his violence and through his grace. Never does he tumble from the tightrope on which he crosses cities and their dramas. [...] His handshake is as firm as he is and I think of it each time my work obliges me to leap over an obstacle.β
Jean Cocteau on Victor Hugo
Jean Cocteau on Klaus Kinski
βYour face is that of a child, but your expression is hard at the same time. It changes from one to the other in an instant. I have never seen such a face.β
Quotes About Jean Cocteau
Gain deeper perspective through quotes about Jean Cocteau from others.
Edith Wharton on Jean Cocteau
βI met a young man of nineteen or twenty, who at that time vibrated with all the youth of the world. This was Jean Cocteau, then a passionately imaginative youth to whom every great line of poetry was a sunrise, every sunset the foundations of the Heavenly City.β
Misattributed Quotes
Quotes mistakenly credited to Jean Cocteau
βThe reward of art is not fame or success but intoxication: that is why so many bad artists are unable to give it up.β
βOriginality consists in trying to be like everybody else β and failing.β
About Jean Cocteau
Jean Maurice EugΓ¨ne ClΓ©ment Cocteau (5 July 1889 β 11 October 1963) was a French poet, novelist, painter, and filmmaker.