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.

Quote by Jean Cocteau

Topics: Jobs Quotes, Literature Quotes, Poetry Quotes

I believe in luck: how else can you explain the success of those you dislike?

I believe in luck: how else can you explain the success of those you dislike?

I have a piece of great and sad news to tell you: I am dead.

I have a piece of great and sad news to tell you: I am dead.

True realism consists in revealing the surprising things which habit keeps covered and prevents us...

True realism consists in revealing the surprising things which habit keeps covered and prevents us...

The Louvre is a morgue; you go there to identify your friends.

The Louvre is a morgue; you go there to identify your friends.

The reward of art is not fame or success but intoxication: that is why so...

The reward of art is not fame or success but intoxication: that is why so...

Whatever the public blames you for, cultivate it; it is yourself

Whatever the public blames you for, cultivate it; it is yourself

One must be a living man and a posthumous artist.

One must be a living man and a posthumous artist.

I believe in luck: how else can you explain the success of those you don't...

I believe in luck: how else can you explain the success of those you don't...

You've never seen death? Look in the mirror every day and you will see it...

You've never seen death? Look in the mirror every day and you will see it...

The poet never asks for admiration; he wants to be believed.

The poet never asks for admiration; he wants to be believed.

Asking an artist to talk about his work is like asking a plant to discuss...

Asking an artist to talk about his work is like asking a plant to discuss...

The poet is a liar who always speaks the truth.

The poet is a liar who always speaks the truth.

Everything one does in life, even love, occurs in an express train racing toward death....

Everything one does in life, even love, occurs in an express train racing toward death....

Children and lunatics cut the Gordian knot which the poet spends his life patiently trying...

Children and lunatics cut the Gordian knot which the poet spends his life patiently trying...

Poets don't draw. They unravel their handwriting and then tie it up again, but differently.

Poets don't draw. They unravel their handwriting and then tie it up again, but differently.

Man seeks to escape himself in myth, and does so by any means at his...

Man seeks to escape himself in myth, and does so by any means at his...

There are too many souls of wood not to love those wooden characters who do...

There are too many souls of wood not to love those wooden characters who do...

I am a lie who always speaks the truth.

I am a lie who always speaks the truth.

Honest hearts produce honest actions.

Honest hearts produce honest actions.

Honesty is as rare as a man without self-pity

Honesty is as rare as a man without self-pity

If you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas

If you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas

Truth is one, but error proliferates. Man tracks it down and cuts it up into...

Truth is one, but error proliferates. Man tracks it down and cuts it up into...