28 Jean Cocteau Quotes on Art

Jean Cocteau quotes on art

4. The Louvre is like the morgue; one goes there to identify one's friends.

5. Poets don't draw. They unravel their handwriting and then tie it up again, but differently.

12. What is line? It is life. A line must live at each point along its course in such a way that the artist's presence makes itself felt above that of the model... With the writer, line takes precedence over form and content. It runs through the words he assembles. It strikes a continuous note unperceived by ear or eye. It is, in a way, the soul's style, and if the line ceases to have a life of its own, if it only describes an arabesque, the soul is missing and the writing dies.

15. An artist cannot speak about his art any more than a plant can discuss horticulture.

16. The trouble about the Academie is that by the time they get around to electing us to a seat, we really need a bed.

19. The poet never asks for admiration; he wants to be believed.

20. Poetry is indispensable - if I only knew what for.

21. Art produces ugly things which frequently become more beautiful with time. Fashion, on the other hand, produces beautiful things which always become ugly with time.

22. A film is a petrified fountain of thought.

28. Don't for a moment believe He was killing the young; He was costuming angels.

33. When a work appears to be ahead of its time, it is only the time that is behind the work.

35. Art is science made clear.

    Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.

36. One must be a living man and a posthumous artist.

37. An original artist is unable to copy. So he has only to copy in order to be original.

38. All good music resembles something. Good music stirs by its mysterious resemblance to the objects and feelings which motivated it.

39. The worst tragedy for a poet is to be admired through being misunderstood.

46. 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.

47. Take a commonplace, clean it and polish it, light it so that it produces the same effect of youth and freshness and originality and spontaneity as it did originally, and you have done a poet's job. The rest is literature.

48. A true poet does not bother to be poetical. Nor does a nursery gardener scent his roses.

49. Victor Hugo was a madman who thought he was Victor Hugo.

63. Hasten slowly. Run faster than beauty.

81. 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.

82. Poetry, being elegance itself, cannot hope to achieve visibility. In that case, you ask me, of what use is it? Of no use. Who will see it? No one. Which does not prevent it from being an outrage to modesty, though its exhibitionism is squandered on the blind. It is enough for poetry to express a personal ethic, which can then break away in the form of a work. It insists on living its own life. It becomes the pretext for a thousand misunderstandings that go by the name of glory...

83. Beauty is always the result of an accident. Of a violent lapse between acquired habits and those yet to be acquired. It baffles and disgusts. It may even horrify. Once the new habit has been acquired, the accident ceases to be an accident. It becomes classical and loses its shock value.

86. 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 perform-ance of a trained dog on very shaky ground.

88. Beauty cannot be recognized with a cursory glance.

90. Film will only become art when its materials are as inexpensive as pencil and paper.

91. The reward of art is not fame or success but intoxication: that is why so many bad artists are unable to give it up.