11 Jean Cocteau Quotes on Creativity

Jean Cocteau quotes on creativity

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.

25. Commissions suit me. They set limits. Jean Marais dared me to write play in which he would not speak in the first act, would weep for joy in the second and in the last would fall backward down a flight of stairs.

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

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.

63. Hasten slowly. Run faster than beauty.

66. Compromise yourself. Obscure your own trail.

77. Be a mere assistant to your unconscious. Do only half the work. The rest will do itself.

79. Know that your work speaks only to those on the same wavelength as you.

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

92. Originality consists in trying to be like everybody else - and failing.

    Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.