1889-1963, French Author, Filmmaker
A car can massage organs which no masseur can reach. It is the one remedy for the disorders of the great sympathetic nervous system.
Jean Cocteau – [Automobiles]


A film is a petrified fountain of thought.
Jean Cocteau – [Movies]


All good music resembles something. Good music stirs by its mysterious resemblance to the objects and feelings which motivated it.
Jean Cocteau – [Music]


An original artist is unable to copy. So he has only to copy in order to be original.
Jean Cocteau – [Imitation]


Art is science made clear.
Jean Cocteau – [Arts and Artists]


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.
Jean Cocteau – [Drugs]


I am a lie who always speaks the truth.
Jean Cocteau – [Lies and Lying]


I have a piece of great and sad news to tell you: I am dead.
Jean Cocteau – [Death and Dying]


If a hermit lives in a state of ecstasy, his lack of comfort becomes the height of comfort. He must relinquish it.
Jean Cocteau – [Asceticism]


If an addict who has been completely cured starts smoking again he no longer experiences the discomfort of his first addiction. There exists, therefore, outside alkaloids and habit, a sense for opium, an intangible habit which lives on, despite the recasting of the organism. The dead drug leaves a ghost behind. At certain hours it haunts the house.
Jean Cocteau – [Addiction]


If it has to choose who is to be crucified, the crowd will always save Barabbas.
Jean Cocteau – [Crowds]


It is not I who become addicted, it is my body.
Jean Cocteau – [Addiction]


Life is a horizontal fall.
Jean Cocteau – [Life and Living]


Man seeks to escape himself in myth, and does so by any means at his disposal. Drugs, alcohol, or lies. Unable to withdraw into himself, he disguises himself. Lies and inaccuracy give him a few moments of comfort.
Jean Cocteau – [Escapism]


Mystery has its own mysteries, and there are gods above gods. We have ours, they have theirs. That is what's known as infinity.
Jean Cocteau – [Mystery]


One must be a living man and a posthumous artist.
Jean Cocteau – [Arts and Artists]


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 – [Dreams]


Poetry is indispensable –if I only knew what for.
Jean Cocteau – [Poetry and Poets]


Since the day of my birth, my death began its walk. It is walking toward me, without hurrying.
Jean Cocteau – [Death and Dying]


Style is a simple way of saying complicated things.
Jean Cocteau – [Style]

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