Jean Cocteau1889–1963The quotations of
Jean Cocteau
French writer and film director
1889–1963
14 quotes, most often on Truth & Lies, Life & Death and Art.
- Opium (1929)
A true poet does not bother to be poetical. Nor does a nursery gardener scent his roses.
A Call to Order (1926)The day of my birth, my death began its walk. It is walking toward me, without hurrying.
“Postambule” in La Fin du Potomac (1939)- Les Enfants Terribles translation by Rosamond Lehmann (1929)
We shelter an angel within us. We must be the guardians of that angel.
Le Coq et l’Arlequin (1918)There are truths which one can only say after having won the right to say them.
Le Coq et l’Arlequin (1918)Fight any instinct to be humorless, for humorlessness is the worst of all absurdities.
Diary of an Unknown (1988)- Le Mystère Laïc (1928)
- On Invisibility
- “Le Paquet Rouge” in Opéra (1925)
Everything one does in life, even love, occurs in an express train racing toward death.
Opium (1929)- Diary of an Unknown (1988)
- “Anubis” to the Sphinx, in Act 2 of The Infernal Machine (1932); Collected Works Vol. 5 (1948)
- “De la Ligne” in La Difficulté d’Etre [The Difficulty of Being] (1947)
