328 Quotes by Jean Cocteau

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

Art is science made clear.

Mirrors should think longer before they reflect.

Art is a marriage of the conscious and the unconscious.

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.

Every poem is a coat of arms. It must be deciphered. How much blood, how many tears in exchange for these axes, these muzzles, these unicorns, these torches, these towers, these martlets, these seedlings of stars and these fields of blue!

The poet doesn't invent. He listens.

Il y a dans le dessin une très grande jouissance. L'écriture, c'est le dessin noué autrement. (...) Et quand je dessine, j'écris, et, peut-être, que quand j'ecris, je dessine.

Je sais que la poésie est indispensable, mais je ne sais pas à quoi.