Famous Jean Cocteau Quotes
“Living is a horizontal fall.”
Opium (1929)
Variant: Life is a horizontal fall.
Source: Opium: The Diary of His Cure
“The extreme limit of wisdom — that’s what the public calls madness.”
Le Coq et l’Arlequin (1918)
Jean Cocteau Quotes about art
As quoted in New York World Telegram & Sun (21 August 1960); also in Threads: My Life Behind the Seams in the High-Stakes World of Fashion (2004) by Joseph Abboud, p. 79
“An artist cannot speak about his art any more than a plant can discuss horticulture.”
As quoted in Newsweek (16 May 1955) Variant translation: Asking an artist to talk about his work is like asking a plant to discuss horticulture.
Cyril Connolly in The Unquiet Grave (1944; 1951), Part 2
Misattributed
“Film will only become an art when its materials are as inexpensive as pencil and paper.”
As quoted in The Super 8 Book (1975) by Lenny Lipton (ed. Chet Roaman); also in Aesthetic Aspects of Recent Experimental Film (1980) by Barry Walter Moore, Garth S. Jowett, p. 6
Jean Cocteau: Trending quotes
“The joy of youth is to disobey, but the trouble is that there are no longer any orders.”
As quoted in Geary's Guide to the World's Great Aphorists (2007) by James Geary, p. 271
“Understand that some of your enemies are amongst your best friends.”
Diary of an Unknown (1988)
Jean Cocteau Quotes
Diary of an Unknown (1988), On Invisibility
Context: Poetry is an ethic. By ethic I mean a secret code of behavior, a discipline constructed and conducted according to the capabilities of a man who rejects the falsifications of the categorical imperative.
This personal morality may appear to be immorality itself in the eyes of those who lie to themselves, or who live a life of confusion, in such a manner that, for them, a lie becomes the truth, and our truth becomes a lie...
“If it has to choose who is to be crucified, the crowd will always save Barabbas.”
Le Coq et l’Arlequin (1918)
“Poetry, being elegance itself, cannot hope to achieve visibility.”
Diary of an Unknown (1988), On Invisibility
Context: Poetry, being elegance itself, cannot hope to achieve visibility. In that case, you ask me, of what use is it? Of no use. Who will see it? No one. Which does not prevent it from being an outrage to modesty, though its exhibitionism is squandered on the blind. It is enough for poetry to express a personal ethic, which can then break away in the form of a work. It insists on living its own life. It becomes the pretext for a thousand misunderstandings that go by the name of glory...
Diary of an Unknown (1988), On Invisibility
Context: 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.
Diary of an Unknown (1988), On Invisibility
Context: Poetry, being elegance itself, cannot hope to achieve visibility. In that case, you ask me, of what use is it? Of no use. Who will see it? No one. Which does not prevent it from being an outrage to modesty, though its exhibitionism is squandered on the blind. It is enough for poetry to express a personal ethic, which can then break away in the form of a work. It insists on living its own life. It becomes the pretext for a thousand misunderstandings that go by the name of glory...
"De la Ligne" in La Difficulté d’Etre [The Difficulty of Being] (1947)
Context: 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.
“History is facts which become lies in the end; legends are lies which become history in the end.”
As quoted in The Observer (22 September 1957)
Context: What is history after all? History is facts which become lies in the end; legends are lies which become history in the end.
“We must believe in luck. For how else can we explain the success of those we don’t like?”
On his election to Académie Française (1955) Variant translation: Of course I believe in luck. How else does one explain the successes of one's enemies?
“The day of my birth, my death began its walk. It is walking toward me, without hurrying.”
Depuis le jour de ma naissance, ma mort s'est mise en marche. Elle marche à ma rencontre, sans se presser.
"Postambule" in La Fin du Potomac (1939); later published in Collected Works Vol. 2 (1947)
"Du Rêve" in La Difficulté d’Etre [The Difficulty of Being] (1947)
“The greatest masterpiece in literature is only a dictionary out of order.”
Source: Le Potomak : Précédé d'un Prospectus 1916
“An original artist is unable to copy. So he has only to copy in order to be original.”
Le Coq et l’Arlequin (1918)
“What uniform can I wear to hide my heavy heart? It is too heavy. It will always show.”
Source: The Holy Terrors
Le Mystère Laïc (1928); later published in Collected Works Vol. 10 (1950)
“Allow the power of the soul to grow as flagrant as the power of sex.”
Diary of an Unknown (1988)
“Do not take up cause against the inaccuracies printed about you. They are your protection.”
Diary of an Unknown (1988)
Diary of an Unknown (1988), On Invisibility
Context: Man seeks to escape himself in myth, and does so by any means at his disposal... unnable to withdraw into himself, he disguises himself. Lies and inaccuracy give him a few moments of comfort, the trifling feeling of escape experienced at a masked ball. He distances himself from that which he feels and sees. He invents. He transfigures. He mythifies. He creates. He fancies himself an artist. He imitates, in his small way, the painters he claims are mad.
