“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
“I have a piece of great and sad news to tell you: I am dead.”
SadAll Quotes by Jean Cocteau
“The poet doesn't invent. He listens.”
Poetry“I am a lie who always speaks the truth.”
Truth“Film will only became an art when its materials are as inexpensive as pencil and paper.”
Art“I believe in luck: how else can you explain the success of those you dislike?”
Success“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“Poetry is indispensable - if I only knew what for.”
Poetry“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 love cats because I enjoy my home and little by little, they become its visible soul.”
Home“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“Here I am trying to live, or rather, I am trying to teach the death within me how to live.”
Death“You've never seen death? Look in the mirror every day and you will see it like bees working in a glass hive.”
Death“Children and lunatics cut the Gordian knot which the poet spends his life patiently trying to untie.”
Poetry“The day of my birth, my death began its walk. It is walking toward me, without hurrying.”
Death“A film is a petrified fountain of thought.”
Movies“A true poet does not bother to be poetical. Nor does a nursery gardener scent his roses.”
Poetry“The poet is a liar who always speaks the truth.”
Poetry“After the writer's death, reading his journal is like receiving a long letter.”
Death“Emotion resulting from a work of art is only of value when it is not obtained by sentimental blackmail.”
Art“We must believe in luck. For how else can we explain the success of those we don't like?”
Success