Famous Quotes,
Proverbs, & Sayings

Jean Cocteau

Popular Topics:

People | Life | Time | Man | Love | Work | Music | Mind | Women | Money | War | Truth | Power | Art | Government | Nature | Business | History | Family | Age | Society | Success

Popular Authors:

Anthony Robbins | Tennessee Williams | Steve Jobs | Ramakrishna | Henry Fielding | Albert Schweitzer | Carl Sandburg | Stephen Hawking | Karl Kraus | Walt Disney | Arthur C. Clarke

Popular Occupations:

Actors | Politicians | Philosophers | Musicians | Comedians | Scientists | Artists | Lawyers

Jean Cocteau

Born: January 01, 1970

Nationality: French

Occupation: Director, novelist, poet, artist, filmmaker

Biography: Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau was a French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, playwright, artist and filmmaker. Cocteau is best known for his novel Les Enfants terribles, and the films Blood of a Poet, Les Parents terribles, Beauty and the Beast, and Orpheus.

Jean Cocteau

“Emotion resulting from a work of art is only of value when it is not obtained by sentimental blackmail.”

- Jean Cocteau

Source/Notes: "A call to order: written between the years 1918 and 1926 and including Cock and harlequin, Professional secrets, and other critical essays" (1926), p. 9

View as Image Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Pintrest Share on Tumblr

Jean Cocteau

“Everything one does in life, even love, occurs in an express train racing toward death. To smoke opium is to get out of the train while it is still moving. It is to concern oneself with something other than life or death.”

- Jean Cocteau

Source/Notes: Opium (1929)

View as Image Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Pintrest Share on Tumblr

Jean Cocteau

“Film will only became an art when its materials are as inexpensive as pencil and paper.”

- Jean Cocteau

View as Image Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Pintrest Share on Tumblr

Jean Cocteau

“Here I am trying to live, or rather, I am trying to teach the death within me how to live.”

- Jean Cocteau

View as Image Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Pintrest Share on Tumblr

Jean Cocteau

“I believe in luck: how else can you explain the success of those you dislike?”

- Jean Cocteau

Source/Notes: In French: "Je crois en la chance: c'est la seule explication pour le succès des gens qui nous sont antipathiques." - Jean Cocteau: l'insolence (ALiAS, 2003) by Brigitte Arnaud, p. 30

View as Image Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Pintrest Share on Tumblr

Jean Cocteau

“I have lost my seven best friends, which is to say God has had mercy on me seven times without realizing it. He lent a friendship, took it from me, sent me another.”

- Jean Cocteau

Source/Notes: Vogue (May 1984)

View as Image Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Pintrest Share on Tumblr

Jean Cocteau

“I love cats because I enjoy my home; and little by little, they become its visible soul.”

- Jean Cocteau

Source/Notes: In French: "J'aime les/mes chats parce que j'aime ma maison et qu'ils en deviennent peu à peu l'âme visible." - La revue des deux mondes, Issues 5-8 (1951), p. 568

View as Image Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Pintrest Share on Tumblr

Jean Cocteau

“If a hermit lives in a state of ecstasy, his lack of comfort becomes the height of comfort. He must relinquish it.”

- Jean Cocteau

Source/Notes: Opium (1929)

View as Image Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Pintrest Share on Tumblr

Jean Cocteau

“If it has to choose who is to be crucified, the crowd will always save Barabbas.”

- Jean Cocteau

Source/Notes: Le Coq et l'Arlequin (1918)

View as Image Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Pintrest Share on Tumblr

Jean Cocteau

“In Paris, everybody wants to be an actor; nobody is content to be a spectator.”

- Jean Cocteau

Source/Notes: Le Coq et l'Arlequin (1918)

View as Image Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Pintrest Share on Tumblr