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The actual tragedies of life bear no relation to one's preconceived ideas. In the event, one is always bewildered by their simplicity, their grandeur of design, and by that element of the bizarre which seems inherent in them.

Jean Cocteau

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Jean Cocteau
Age: 74 †
Born: 1889
Born: July 5
Died: 1963
Died: October 11
Actor
Composer
Designer
Film Director
Illustrator
Librettist
Novelist
Painter
Photographer
Playwright
Poet
Postage Stamp Designer
Prosaist
Clément Eugène Jean Pierre Cocteau
Zhan Kokto
Eugène Jean Maurice Cocteau
Eugene Jean Maurice Cocteau
Jean Cocteau
Ideas
Elements
Element
Always
Design
Event
Life
Events
Actual
Preconceived
Philosophy
Simplicity
Bewildered
Belief
Bear
Tragedies
History
Tragedy
Grandeur
Art
Relation
Bizarre
Seems
Bears
Inherent

More quotes by Jean Cocteau

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An artist cannot speak about his art any more than a plant can discuss horticulture.
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All good music resembles something. Good music stirs by its mysterious resemblance to the objects and feelings which motivated it.
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My little Renoirs. Matisse describes having seen Renoir make these tiny canvases. When he had finished working, he would use up the color left in his brushes on them.
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And now I have to confess the unpardonable and the scandalous. I am a happy man. And I am going to tell you the secret of my happiness. It is quite simple. I love mankind. I love love. I hate hate. I try to understand and accept.
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You have comfort. You don't have luxury. And don't tell me that money plays a part. The luxury I advocate has nothing to do with money. It cannot be bought. It is the reward of those who have NO Fear or Discomfort.
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Art is science made flesh.
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I know that poetry is indispensable, but to what I could not say.
Jean Cocteau
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Victor Hugo was a madman who thought he was Victor Hugo
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Such is the role of poetry. It unveils, in the strict sense of the word. It lays bare, under a light which shakes off torpor, the surprising things which surround us and which our senses record mechanically.
Jean Cocteau
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The skin of all of us is responsive to gypsy songs and military marches.
Jean Cocteau
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Every poem is a coat of arms. It must be deciphered. How much blood, how many tears in exchange for these axes, these muzzles, these unicorns, these torches, these towers, these martlets, these seedlings of stars and these fields of blue!
Jean Cocteau
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Stupidity is always astounding, no matter how often one encounters it.
Jean Cocteau
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There's no such thing as love only proof of love.
Jean Cocteau
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The speed of a runaway horse counts for nothing.
Jean Cocteau
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Never do what a specialist can do better. Discover your own specialty. Do not despair if your specialty appears to be more delicate, a lesser thing. Make up in finesse what you lose in force.
Jean Cocteau
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At all costs the true world of childhood must prevail, must be restored that world whose momentous, heroic, mysterious quality is fed on airy nothings, whose substance is so ill-fitted to withstand the brutal touch of adult inquisition.
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He has the manner of a giant with the look of a child, a lazy activeness, a mad wisdom, a solitude encompassing the world.
Jean Cocteau
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A prig always finds a last refuge in responsibility.
Jean Cocteau
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In Paris, everybody wants to be an actor nobody is content to be a spectator.
Jean Cocteau
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Since the day of my birth, my death began its walk. It is walking toward me, without hurrying.
Jean Cocteau