Quote

The ultimate politeness in art consists of speaking only to those who are able to uncover and measure its relationships. Anything else is symbolic, and symbolism is merely transcendental imagery.

Jean Cocteau

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Able
Measure
Speaking
Uncover
Relationships
Symbolism
Merely
Transcendental
Ultimate
Politeness
Art
Imagery
Else
Symbolic
Anything
Consists

More quotes by Jean Cocteau

Image
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.
Jean Cocteau
Image
I am burning myself up and will always do so.
Jean Cocteau
Image
It seems to me that invisibility is the required provision of elegance. Elegance ceases to exist when it is noticed.
Jean Cocteau
Image
To be audacious with tact, you have to know to what point you can go too far.
Jean Cocteau
Image
Poetry is indispensable - if I only knew what for.
Jean Cocteau
Image
All good music resembles something. Good music stirs by its mysterious resemblance to the objects and feelings which motivated it.
Jean Cocteau
Image
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.
Jean Cocteau
Image
The poet never asks for admiration he wants to be believed.
Jean Cocteau
Image
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.
Jean Cocteau
Image
Every day in the mirror I watch death at work.
Jean Cocteau
Image
The poet is a liar who always speaks the truth.
Jean Cocteau
Image
After the writer's death, reading his journal is like receiving a long letter.
Jean Cocteau
Image
The runner stopped dead, lost his balance, froze in one of those violent attitudes in which the photographers petrify living reality.
Jean Cocteau
Image
One of the characteristics of the dream is that nothing surprises us in it. With no regret, we agree to live in it with strangers, completely cut off from our habits and friends.
Jean Cocteau
Image
French people are Italian people in a bad mood.
Jean Cocteau
Image
Victor Hugo was a madman who thought he was Victor Hugo
Jean Cocteau
Image
And history becomes legend and legend becomes history.
Jean Cocteau
Image
Look out! Be on your guard, because alone of all the arts, music moves all around you.
Jean Cocteau
Image
What is style? For many people, a very complicated way of saying very simple things. According to us, a very simple way of saying very complicated things.
Jean Cocteau
Image
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.
Jean Cocteau