Jean Cocteau quotes

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One must be a living man and a posthumous artist.
Jean Cocteau
Artist
Living
Man
Whatever the public blames you for, cultivate it; it is yourself.
Jean Cocteau
Public
What the public criticizes in you, cultivate. It is you.
Jean Cocteau
Public
We must believe in luck. For how else can we explain the success of those we don't like?
Jean Cocteau
Success
Luck
True realism consists in revealing the surprising things which habit keeps covered and prevents us from seeing.
Jean Cocteau
Habit
Realism
There is always a period when a man with a beard shaves it off. This period does not last. He returns headlong to his beard.
Jean Cocteau
Man
There are too many souls of wood not to love those wooden characters who do indeed have a soul.
Jean Cocteau
Love
Soul
Wood
The reward of art is not fame or success but intoxication: that is why so many bad artists are unable to give it up.
Jean Cocteau
Art
Success
Artists
Fame
Reward
The poet never asks for admiration; he wants to be believed.
Jean Cocteau
Admiration
The poet is a liar who always speaks the truth.
Jean Cocteau
Truth
When a work appears to be ahead of its time, it is only the time that is behind the work.
Jean Cocteau
Time
Work
The Louvre is a morgue; you go there to identify your friends.
Jean Cocteau
Friends
You've never seen death? Look in the mirror every day and you will see it like bees working in a glass hive.
Jean Cocteau
Death
Bees
Day
Will
Poets don't draw. They unravel their handwriting and then tie it up again, but differently.
Jean Cocteau
Poets
The extreme limit of wisdom, that's what the public calls madness.
Jean Cocteau
Wisdom
Extreme
Madness
Public