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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.

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
Moment
Performs
Moments
Spectacle
Thing
Concentrated
Always
Crowd
Crowds
Inner
Aware
Becomes

More quotes by Jean Cocteau

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Poetry is a religion without hope. The poet exhausts himself in its service, knowing that, in the long run, a masterpiece is nothing but the performance of a trained dog on very shaky ground.
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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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Emotion resulting from a work of art is only of value when it is not obtained by sentimental blackmail.
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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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Stupidity is always astounding, no matter how often one encounters it.
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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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The worst tragedy for a poet is to be admired through being misunderstood.
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The joy of youth is to disobey but the trouble is that there are no longer any orders.
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Tact in audacity is knowing how far you can go without going too far.
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The Louvre is a morgue you go there to identify your friends.
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Understand that some of your enemies are amongst your best friends.
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The poet doesn't invent. He listens.
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I have a piece of great and sad news to tell you: I am dead.
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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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Anything of any importance cannot help but be unrecognizable, since it bears no resemblance to anything already known.
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What uniform can I wear to hide my heavy heart? It is too heavy. It will always show.
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The artist must know how far to go too far.
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Listen carefully to first criticisms made of your work. Note just what it is about your work that critics don't like - then cultivate it. That's the only part of your work that's individual and worth keeping.
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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.
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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.
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