Quotessence
Home / Authors / Jean Cocteau
Jean Cocteau

Jean Cocteau Quotes

Poet

Filter quotes by topic

AllArtIfsPoetPoetryMenRealityArtistFirstsLittlesPoetry IsArt IsDrugKnowsWritingLyingMirrorsOpiumSpeakWorldBehinds

Famous Jean Cocteau Quotes

“I shall never forget what I saw at the Museum of Modern Art: in a spotless schoolroom, fifty little girls painting away at tables covered with brushes, pots, tubes, bowls, staring into space and sticking out their tongues like the clever animals that ring a bell, tongues lolling and eyes vague. Teachers supervise these young creators of abstract art and slap their wrists if what they paint represents something and dangerously inclines toward realism. The mothers - still at the Picasso stage - are not admitted.”

IfsLittlesArtStillsEyeYoungMotherGirlSpaceForgetAnimalSawsTeacherModernStagePaintingTablesPaintCreatorTongueRingsCleverStaringAbstractFiftyNever ForgetCoveredMuseumsPotBellsRealismBowlsVagueBrushesModernismSlapTubesWristsModern ArtInclineAbstract ArtSticking OutStaring Into Space
Author:Jean Cocteau
Create image

“I want the kind of readers who remain children at any cost. I can tell them at a glance: loyalty to that first enchantment guards better than any cosmetic; than any diet, against the insults of age. But alas for such readers, who would huddle safe and sound in the asylum of their credulous enchantment as if in the womb-our enervating century offends them by its chaos, its fidgets of light and space, the host of its excuses for dividing , for rending oneself from others and from oneself.”

IfsWantFirstsKindChildrenI CanLightAgeSoundSpaceCenturyReaderCostSafeChaosOneselfExcuseLoyaltyDietsInsultHostGlancesAlasWombCosmeticsAsylumsEnchantmentDividingSafe And Sound
Author:Jean Cocteau
Create image

“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.”

IfsNeedsWritingBelieveTwoHelpingPainSufferingEnjoyMemoriesForgetBehindsImpossibleJourneyWeekFeetDrawsDoctorsNotesDespitePensLazinessTwo WeeksDoctor WhoRespondingSolicitation
Book:Opium: The Illustrated Diary of His Cure
Create image

“If an addict who has been completely cured starts smoking again he no longer experiences the discomfort of his first addiction. There exists, therefore, outside alkaloids and habit, a sense for opium, an intangible habit which lives on, despite the recasting of the organism. The dead drug leaves a ghost behind. At certain hours it haunts the house.”

IfsFirstsHas BeensCertainHouseHoursBehindsHabitDrugAddictionGhostDespiteSmokingOrganismsAddictDiscomfortIntangibleOpiumSmoking CigarsFunny SmokingNo Smoking
Book:Cocteau's world: an anthology of writings
Create image

“What is line? It is life. A line must live at each point along its course in such a way that the artist's presence makes itself felt above that of the model... With the writer, line takes precedence over form and content. It runs through the words he assembles. It strikes a continuous note unperceived by ear or eye. It is, in a way, the soul's style, and if the line ceases to have a life of its own, if it only describes an arabesque, the soul is missing and the writing dies.”

IfsWayWritingSoulEyeRunningFormArtistDiesCoursesFeltLinesMissingStyleModelsEarsNotesStrikesCeasePrecedence
Author:Jean Cocteau
Create image