“See your disappointments as good fortune. One plan's deflation is another's inflation.”
Diary of an Unknown (1988)
Jean Cocteau:
123
quotes
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Jean Cocteau Quotes
"Anubis" to the Sphinx, in Act 2 of The Infernal Machine (1932); Collected Works Vol. 5 (1948)
“The skin of all of us is responsive to gypsy songs and military marches.”
As quoted in Slonimsky's Book of Musical Anecdotes (2002) by Nicolas Slonimsky, p. 33
Diary of an Unknown (1988)
“In Paris, everybody wants to be an actor; nobody is content to be a spectator.”
Le Coq et l’Arlequin (1918)
“That pile of paper on his left side went on living like the watch on a dead soldier’s wrist.”
On his visit to the deathbed of Marcel Proust, as quoted in "Cocteau: The Great Enchanter" by Edmund White Vogue (May 1984)
“Be a mere assistant to your unconscious. Do only half the work. The rest will do itself.”
Diary of an Unknown (1988)
“Look out! Be on your guard, because alone of all the arts, music moves all around you.”
Le Coq et l’Arlequin (1918)
“When a work appears to be ahead of its time, it is only the time that is behind the work.”
Le Coq et l’Arlequin (1918)
“Poetry is indispensable — if I only knew what for.”
As quoted in The Necessity of Art (1959) by Ernst Fischer, Ch. 1
"Le Secret Professionnel" (originally published 1922); later published in Collected Works Vol. 9 (1950)
A Call to Order (1926)
“There are truths which one can only say after having won the right to say them.”
Le Coq et l’Arlequin (1918)
Mettez un lieu commun en place, nettoyez-le, frottez-le, éclairez-le de telle sorte qu'il frappe avec sa jeunesse et avec la même fraîcheur, le même jet qu'il avait à sa source, vous ferez œuvre de poète. Tout le reste est littérature.
"Le Secret Professionnel" (originally published 1922); later published in Collected Works Vol. 9 (1950)
A Call to Order (1926)
“Mirrors would do well to reflect a little more before sending back images.”
As quoted in Geary's Guide to the World's Great Aphorists (2007) by James Geary, p. 159
“I have a piece of great and sad news to tell you: I am dead.”
"Visite" in Discours du Grand Sommeil (1920); later published in Collected Works Vol. 4 (1947)
Opium (1929)
“Originality consists in trying to be like everybody else — and failing.”
Raymond Radiguet, who was quoted by Cocteau in his acceptance speech to the Académie Française (October 1955)
Misattributed
“One is either judge or accused. The judge sits, the accused stands. Live on your feet.”
Diary of an Unknown (1988)
“Beauty cannot be recognized with a cursory glance.”
Diary of an Unknown (1988), On Invisibility
“There are too many souls of wood not to love those wooden characters who do indeed have a soul.”
On marionettes, as quoted in The New York Times (15 February 1987)
“Do not fear being ridiculous in relation to the ridiculous.”
Diary of an Unknown (1988)
On Orson Welles, as quoted in The New York Times (11 October 1985)
“The worst tragedy for a poet is to be admired through being misunderstood.”
Le Coq et l’Arlequin (1918)
“We shelter an angel within us. We must be the guardians of that angel.”
Also quoted in Diary of an Unknown (1991) as translated by Jesse Browne.
Le Coq et l’Arlequin (1918)
“After the writer’s death, reading his journal is like receiving a long letter.”
On the journal of Franz Kafka; diary entry (7 June 1953); Past Tense: Diaries Vol. 2 (1988)
“Know that your work speaks only to those on the same wavelength as you.”
Diary of an Unknown (1988)
As quoted by Ned Rorem The Dick Cavett Show (PBS) (6 October 1981)
On his election to Académie Française (1955)
As quoted in An Encyclopedia of Quotations About Music (1981) by Nat Shapiro, p. 130
As quoted in Moments of Clarity (2002) by Thomas L. Jackson, p. 88
“A prig always finds a last refuge in responsibility.”
The Wedding on the Eiffel Tower (1922), Preface
“The Louvre is like the morgue; one goes there to identify one’s friends.”
"Le Secret Professionnel" in Le Rappel à l’Ordre (1922; 1926)
As quoted by Roger Shattuck in "A Native Son of Paris", Jean Cocteau and the French Scene (1984)
Variant: The Louvre is a morgue; you go there to identify your friends.
“Tact in audacity is knowing how far you can go without going too far.”
Variant translation: Tact in audacity consists in knowing how far we may go too far.
Le Coq et l’Arlequin (1918)
