A true poet does not bother to be poetical. Nor does a nursery gardener scent his roses.

— Jean Cocteau

Be yourself. The world worships the original.

— Jean Cocteau

Certainly I believe in luck. How else do you explain the success of those you don't like?

— Jean Cocteau

Emotion resulting from a work of art is only of value when it is not obtained by sentimental blackmail.

— Jean Cocteau

Every poem is a coat of arms. It must be deciphered. How much blood, how many tears in exchange for these axes, these muzzles, these unicorns, these torches, these towers, these mart lets, these seedlings of stars and these fields of blue!

— Jean Cocteau

Everything one does in life, even love, occurs in an express train racing toward death. To smoke opium is to get out of the train while it is still moving. It is to concern oneself with something other than life or death.

— Jean Cocteau

Fashion is everything that goes out of fashion.

— Jean Cocteau

Here I am trying to live, or rather, I am trying to teach the death within me how to live.

— Jean Cocteau

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

— Jean Cocteau

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

— Jean Cocteau