39 Quotes By 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 on art

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

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

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

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

Art is not a pastime but a priesthood.
Jean Cocteau on art

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

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 on best

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

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

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

After the writer's death, reading his journal is like receiving a long letter.
Jean Cocteau on death

The day of my birth, my death began its walk. It is walking toward me, without hurrying.
Jean Cocteau on death

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 on death

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.
Jean Cocteau on design

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 on friendship

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

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

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

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