Jean Cocteau quotes

The poet is a liar who always speaks the truth.

An artist cannot speak about his art any more than a plant can discuss horticulture.

All good music resembles something. Good music stirs by its mysterious resemblance to the objects and feelings which motivated it.

Art is a marriage of the conscious and the unconscious.

Poetry is indispensable - if I only knew what for.

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

I love cats because I enjoy my home; and little by little, they become its visible soul.

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.

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

Life is a horizontal fall.

Art is not a pastime but a priesthood.

The poet doesn't invent. He listens.

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

Since the day of my birth, my death began its walk. It is walking toward me, without hurrying.

You've never seen death? Look in the mirror every day and you will see it like bees working in a glass hive.

The extreme limit of wisdom, that's what the public calls madness.

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

The poet is a liar who always speaks the truth.

An original artist is unable to copy. So he has only to copy in order to be original.

I have lost my seven best friends, which is to say God has had mercy on me seven times without realizing it. He lent a friendship, took it from me, sent me another.

The actual tragedies of life bear no relation to one's preconceived ideas. In the event, one is always bewildered by their simplicity, their grandeur of design, and by that element of the bizarre which seems inherent in them.

The reward of art is not fame or success but intoxication: that is why so many bad artists are unable to give it up.

Art is a marriage of the conscious and the unconscious.