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

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

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Stupidity is always astounding, no matter how often one encounters it.
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I succeeded in bewitching a fair number and in being intoxicated with my mistakes.
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Compromise yourself. Obscure your own trail.
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The artist is a kind of prison from which the works of art escape.
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The public only takes up yesterday as a stick to beat today.
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Poetry is a religion without hope, but its martyrs guarantee the eternal truth of its dogma.
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The spirit of creation is the spirit of contradiction. It is the breakthrough of appearances toward an unknown reality.
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The poet doesn't invent. He listens.
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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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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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The preservation of friendship is seen as opportunism. You are required to be in one camp or the other. You are enjoined to cut your heartstrings if they extend across the barricade.
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The poet never asks for admiration he wants to be believed.
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To be audacious with tact, you have to know to what point you can go too far.
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May the devil himself splatter you with dung.
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In Paris, everybody wants to be an actor nobody is content to be a spectator.
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The poet Paul Éluard says that to understand my film version of Beauty and the Beast, you must love your dog more than your car.
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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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