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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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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
Word
Surround
Sense
Lays
Unveils
Light
Senses
Torpor
Things
Record
Mechanically
Role
Bare
Poetry
Strict
Records
Shakes
Roles
Surprising

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I know that poetry is indispensable, but to what I could not say.
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What uniform can I wear to hide my heavy heart? It is too heavy. It will always show. Jacques felt himself growing gloomy again. He was well aware that to live on earth a man must follow its fashions, and hearts were no longer worn.
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In Paris, everybody wants to be an actor nobody is content to be a spectator.
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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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Statues to great men are made of the stones thrown at them in their lifetime.
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The prettiest dresses are worn to be taken off.
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The poet is a liar who always speaks the truth.
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I succeeded in bewitching a fair number and in being intoxicated with my mistakes.
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May the devil himself splatter you with dung.
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How our old friend [Michelangelo] of the Sistine would have loved to photograph his workers, perched on the fragile planks. Dali was right to say Leonardo only worked from photographs.
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Every day in the mirror I watch death at work.
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A film is a petrified fountain of thought.
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Cultivate everything the critics hated in your first work - that's what makes you unique.
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See your disappointments as good fortune. One plan's deflation is another's inflation.
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The hot hall full of painted girls and American soldiers is a saloon in some Western film. This noise drenches us, wakens us to do something else. It shows us a lost path.
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Whatever the world condemns you for, make it your own. It is yourself.
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The joy of the young is to disobey
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Mirrors should reflect a little before throwing back images.
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The poet is at the disposal of the night. His role is humble, he must clean house and await its due visitation.
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