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Jean Cocteau Quotes

What the public criticizes in you, cultivate. It is you.

What the public criticizes in you, cultivate. It is you.

"Cock and harlequin: Notes concerning music". Book by Jean Cocteau, 1921.

We shelter an angel within us. We must be the guardians of that angel.

"Cock and harlequin: Notes concerning music". Book by Jean Cocteau, 1921.

If a poet has a dream, it is not of becoming famous, but of being believed.

Jean Cocteau (1964). “The journals of Jean Cocteau”

Find first, seek later.

"Diary of an Unknown". Book by Jean Cocteau, 1988.

Living is a horizontal fall.

Jean Cocteau (1990). “Opium: The Illustrated Diary of His Cure”, Peter Owen Publishers

A little too much is just enough for me.

Jean Cocteau (1987). “Paris album: 1900-1914”

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.

"If your identity is inscribed for you from the outside, it’s even more difficult to escape". Interview with Stephanie LaCava, logger.believermag.com. July 1, 2014.