Jean Cocteau
France
5 Jul 1889 // 1963
Poet, / Novelist / Dramatist
5 Jul 1889 // 1963
Poet, / Novelist / Dramatist
Quotes
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Art is a marriage of the conscious and the unconscious
An original artist is unable to copy. So he has only to copy in order to be original
All good music resembles something. Good music stirs by its mysterious resemblance to the objects and feelings which motivated it
After the writer's death, reading his journal is like receiving a long letter
A true poet does not bother to be poetical. Nor does a nursery gardener scent his roses
The public only takes up yesterday as a stick to beat today
The instinct of nearly all societies is to lock up anybody who is truly free. First, society begins by trying to beat you up. If this fails, they try to poison you. If this fails too, they finish by loading honors on your head
Take the commonplace, clean and polish it, light it so that it produces the same effect of youth and freshness and spontaneity as it did originally, and you have done a poet's job. The rest is literature
Tact consists in knowing how far to go too far
Style is a simple way of saying complicated things
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On Anger: "For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind."
Essays
Essays
On Destiny: "Our destiny exercises its influence over us even when, as yet, we have not learned its nature: it is our future that lays down the law of our today."
Human, All Too Human
Human, All Too Human
On Friendship: "A crowd is not company; and faces are but a gallery of pictures; and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love."
Essays
Essays