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One must be a living man and a posthumous artist.

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
Posthumous
Living
Artist
Art
Must
Men

More quotes by Jean Cocteau

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Lack of manners is the sign of a hero.
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Poetry is an ethic. By ethic I mean a secret code of behavior, a discipline constructed and conducted according to the capabilities of a man who rejects the falsifications of the categorical imperative.
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one should always talk well about oneself! The word spreads around and in the end, noone remembers where it started
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The Louvre is a morgue you go there to identify your friends.
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Look out! Be on your guard, because alone of all the arts, music moves all around you.
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Art produces ugly things which frequently become beautiful with time.
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The runner stopped dead, lost his balance, froze in one of those violent attitudes in which the photographers petrify living reality.
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Understand that some of your enemies are amongst your best friends.
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You are always concentrated on the inner thing. The moment one becomes aware of the crowd, performs for the crowd, it is spectacle.
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There's no such thing as love only proof of love.
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The poet doesn't invent. He listens.
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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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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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I have never felt any connection with my family. There is—I must say simply—something in me that is not in my family. That was not visible in my father or mother. I do not know its origin.
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I love cats because I enjoy my home and little by little, they become its visible soul.
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The audience bursts into laughter. With the tragic gag I don't expect the audience to laugh (if they do, I have failed) but I expect a black silence from them that is almost as violent: as laughter.
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To be audacious with tact, you have to know to what point you can go too far.
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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Expect neither reward nor beatitude. Return noble waves for ignoble.
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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.
Jean Cocteau