Jean Cocteau, 1889-1963, French Author, Filmmaker Quotes

Poetry is indispensable -- if I only knew what for.

One sits down first; one thinks afterwards.

The course of a river is almost always disapproved of by its source.

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.t certain hours it haunts the house.

A film is a petrifying fountain of thought. A film revives lifeless deeds. A film permits one to give the appearance of reality to that which is unreal.

The prettiest dresses are worn to be taken off.

Murderers have been known to find that young girls give them more trouble than anybody else.

Tact is knowing how far to go too far.

Tact in audacity consists in knowing how far we may go too far.

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.