Jean Cocteau Quotes

Youth can only assert itself through the conviction that its ventures surpass all others and resemble nothing.

Many years ago, as I was glancing through a catalogue of jokes for parties and weddings, I saw an item, 'An object difficult to pick up'. I haven't the slightest idea what that 'object' is or what it looks like, but I like knowing that it exists and I like thinking about it.
A work of art should also be 'an object difficult to pick up'. It must protect itself from vulgar pawing, which tarnishes and disfigures it. It should be made of such a shape that people don't know which way to hold it, which embarrasses and irritates the critics, incites them to be rude, but keeps it fresh. The less it's understood, the slower it opens its petals, the later it will fade. A work of art must make contact, be it even through a misunderstanding, but at the same time it must hide its riches, to reveal them little by little over a long period of time. A work that doesn't keep its secrets and surrenders itself too soon exposes itself to the risk of withering away, leaving only a dead stalk.

The extreme limit of wisdom — that’s what the public calls madness.

Il y a une parte de vérité qui sort de nous que ce n'est pas le rêve, ce n'est pas la rêverie.
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C'est notre vrai moi, il est caché dans les ténèbres, il nous donne désordre....nous voulons travailler sans lui et est alors que nous commettons nos plus graves erreurs.

Compromise yourself. Obscure your own trail.

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

When I make a film, it is a sleep in which I am dreaming.

Vivre est une chute horizontale

We only serve as a model to the portrait of our fame

Le cinéma, c'est l'écriture moderne dont l'encre est la lumière.

Film will only become an art when its materials are as inexpensive as pencil and paper.

I suppose the artists invented the firm breasts they put on women, and that in reality all women had flabby ones.

Beauty is always the result of an accident. Of a violent lapse between acquired habits and those yet to be acquired. It baffles and disgusts. It may even horrify. Once the new habit has been acquired, the accident ceases to be an accident. It becomes classical and loses its shock value.

Victor Hugo was a madman who thought he was Victor Hugo

Les miroirs feraient bien de réfléchir un peu plus avant de renvoyer les images.