Jean Cocteau Quotes

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

Victor Hugo was a madman who thought he was Victor Hugo

Statues to great men are made of the stones thrown at them in their lifetime.

Lack of manners is the sign of a hero.

Every poem is a coat of arms. It must be deciphered. How much blood, how many tears in exchange for these axes, these muzzles, these unicorns, these torches, these towers, these martlets, these seedlings of stars and these fields of blue!

There is an angel inside me whom I am constantly shocking.

one should always talk well about oneself! The word spreads around and in the end, noone remembers where it started

We are in a period of such individualism that one no longer speaks of disciples; one speaks of thieves.

Without opium, plans, marriages and journeys appear to me just as foolish as if someone falling out of a window were to hope to make friends with the occupants of the room before which he passes.

What uniform can I wear to hide my heavy heart? It is too heavy. It will always show.

I only fear the death of others. For me, true death is that of the people I love

A man's truest self realizations might require him, above all, to learn to close his eyes: to let himself be taken unawares, to follow his dark angel, to risk his illegal instincts.

True realism consists in revealing the surprising things which habit keeps covered and prevents us from seeing.

In two weeks, despite these notes, I shall no longer believe in what I am experiencing now. One must leave behind a trace of this journey which memory forgets. One must, when this is impossible, write or draw without responding to the romantic solicitations of pain, without enjoying suffering like music, tieing a pen to one's foot if need be, helping the doctors who can learn nothing from laziness.

It's perfectly normal that extraordinary things happen to me. I'm an exceptional person. Oh, don't think I'm boasting. I mean to say that, unfortunately, I'm exceptional and that, unfortunately, I can't live by the rules. I must make my own.