Jean Cocteau Quotes

The moment you cheat for the sake of beauty, you know you're an artist.

Art is about expressing the true nature of the human spirit in whatever way one wishes to express it. If it is honest, it is beautiful. If it is not honest, it is obvious.

Robert Frost had always said you mustn't think of the last line first, or it's only a fake poem, not a real one. I'm inclined to agree.

Where there is much pretension, much has been borrowed; nature never pretends.

No more pronouncements on lousy verse. No more hidden competition. No more struggling not to be a square.

For a creative writer possession of the 'truth' is less important than emotional sincerity.

Why should we change onstage? We're not trying to be something big and fancy, it's just us, doing what we do, we'd like to keep it that way.

You have to write the story that's at the front of your head. There is no point in trying to write for the market; it won't ring true.

The first test any poem must pass is no longer, 'Is it true to nature?' but a criterion looking in a different direction: namely, 'Is it sincere? Is it genuine?'

Take a commonplace, clean it and polish it, light it so that it produces the same effect of youth and freshness and originality and spontaneity as it did originally, and you have done a poet's job. The rest is literature.

My dad was a poet. He saw the world through unique glasses, with simplicity, spirituality, and humor.

The world is full of poetry. The air is living with its spirit; and the waves dance to the music of its melodies, and sparkle in its brightness.

I like rhyme because it is memorable, I like form because having to work to a pattern gives me original ideas.

I try not to observe myself in the process of composing a poem because I don't want to come up with a formula, which I would then be unscrupulous in using.

I want that every piece of art be honest, never mind what it is about.

The Resistance is a moral certainty, not a poetic one. The true poet never uses words in order to punish someone. His judgment belongs to a creative order; it is not formulated as a prophetic scripture.

A poet never takes notes. You never take notes in a love affair.

Like everything genuine, its inner life guarantees its truth. All works of art created by truthful minds without regard for the work's conventional exterior remain genuine for all times.

I definitely dislike pomposity and artifice. I hope that I'm not that. Once I write a song, it belongs to the world, and the way people perceive it, it's cool.

I have no affectation when I speak.

The best strips are the most honest. That's just the truth of it.

Personality is everything in art and poetry.

In the world of words, the imagination is one of the forces of nature.

Nothing can be beautiful which is not true.

The first question at that time in poetry was simply the question of honesty, of sincerity.