“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
“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.”
DeathAll Quotes by Jean Cocteau
“Since the day of my birth, my death began its walk. It is walking toward me, without hurrying.”
Death“Poetry is indispensable - if I only knew what for.”
Poetry“Art is not a pastime but a priesthood.”
Art“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.”
Death“The extreme limit of wisdom, that's what the public calls madness.”
Wisdom“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, the finish by loading honors on your head.”
Society“I am a lie who always speaks the truth.”
Truth“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.”
Best“Children and lunatics cut the Gordian knot which the poet spends his life patiently trying to untie.”
Poetry“An artist cannot speak about his art any more than a plant can discuss horticulture.”
Art“Art is a marriage of the conscious and the unconscious.”
Art“I believe in luck: how else can you explain the success of those you dislike?”
Success“We must believe in luck. For how else can we explain the success of those we don't like?”
Success“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.”
Design“A film is a petrified fountain of thought.”
Movies“I have a piece of great and sad news to tell you: I am dead.”
Sad“All good music resembles something. Good music stirs by its mysterious resemblance to the objects and feelings which motivated it.”
Good“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.”
Art“The poet is a liar who always speaks the truth.”
Poetry