A film is a petrified fountain of thought.
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

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

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

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

Art is a marriage of the conscious and the unconscious.
Jean Cocteau

Art is not a pastime but a priesthood.
Jean Cocteau

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.
Jean Cocteau

Asking an artist to talk about his work is like asking a plant to discuss horticulture.
Jean Cocteau


Children and lunatics cut the Gordian knot which the poet spends his life patiently trying to untie.
Jean Cocteau

Commissions suit me. They set limits. Jean Marais dared me to write play in which he would not speak in the first act, would weep for joy in the second and in the last would fall backward down a flight of stairs.
Jean Cocteau

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

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.
Jean Cocteau

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

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

I am a lie who always speaks the truth.
Jean Cocteau

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

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

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.
Jean Cocteau