328 Quotes by Jean Cocteau

Catastrophe, riots, factories blowing up, armies in flight, flood – the ear can detect a whole apocalypse in the starry night of the human body.

When I make a film, it is a sleep in which I am dreaming.

You have comfort. You don’t have luxury. And don’t tell me that money plays a part. The luxury I advocate has nothing to do with money. It cannot be bought. It is the reward of those who have NO Fear or Discomfort.

Without resistance you can do nothing.

Poetry is indispensable – if I only knew what for.

Listen carefully to first criticisms made of your work. Note just what it is about your work that critics don’t like – then cultivate it. That’s the only part of your work that’s individual and worth keeping.

The actual tragedies of life bear no relation to one’s preconceived ideas. In the event, one is always bewildered by their simplicity, their grandeur of design, and by that element of the bizarre which seems inherent in them.

There is neither magic nor master’s eye. Only a great deal of love and a great deal of work.

I am a lie that always speaks the truth.