Here I am trying to live, or rather, I am trying to teach the death within me how to live. Jean Cocteau More Quotes by Jean Cocteau More Quotes From Jean Cocteau Children and lunatics cut the Gordian knot which the poet spends his life patiently trying to untie. Jean Cocteau life children art Mirrors would do well to reflect a little more before sending back images. Jean Cocteau wells mirrors littles The world owes its enchantment to these curious creatures and their fancies; but its multiple complicity rejects them. Thistledown spirits, tragic, heartrending in their evanescence, they must go blowing headlong to perdition. Jean Cocteau enchantment fancy world After you have written a thing and you reread it, there is always the temptation to fix it up, to improve it, to remove its poison, blunt its sting. Jean Cocteau poison temptation writing The dead drug leaves a ghost behind. At certain hours it haunts the house. Jean Cocteau addiction smoking house A picture is not a window...an abstract refers to no reality but its own. Jean Cocteau abstract reality window Tact in audacity is knowing how far you can go without going too far. Jean Cocteau courtesy audacity knowing 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. Jean Cocteau addiction smoking house Appreciation of art is a moral erection, otherwise mere dilettantism. Jean Cocteau moral appreciation art Continue reading Proust. His magnificent intelligence is particularly fond of describing stupidity. Which is ultimately exhausting. Jean Cocteau proust stupidity reading Not only should you not accept a prize. You should not try to deserve one either. Jean Cocteau accepting should trying The runner stopped dead, lost his balance, froze in one of those violent attitudes in which the photographers petrify living reality. Jean Cocteau balance attitude reality Poetry is a religion with no hope. Jean Cocteau no-hope poetry-is 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. Jean Cocteau angel eye taken 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. Jean Cocteau girl mother teacher Don't for a moment believe He was killing the young; He was costuming angels. Jean Cocteau angel moments believe It is difficult to live without opium after having known it because it is difficult, after knowing opium, to take earth seriously. And unless one is a saint, it is difficult to live without taking earth seriously. Jean Cocteau saint drug knowing Victor Hugo was a madman who thought he was Victor Hugo Jean Cocteau madmen We are in a period of such individualism that one no longer speaks of disciples; one speaks of thieves. Jean Cocteau individualism thieves speak My method is simple: not to bother about poetry. It must come of its own accord. Merely whispering its name drives it away. Jean Cocteau whispering simple names
