Poetry is indispensable - if I only knew what for.

— Jean Cocteau

Since the day of my birth, my death began its walk. It is walking toward me, without hurrying.

— Jean Cocteau

Style is a simple way of saying complicated things.

— Jean Cocteau

The actual tragedies of life bear no relation to one's preconceived ideas. In the event, one is always bewildered by their simplicity, their grandeur of design, and by that element of the bizarre which seems inherent in them.

— Jean Cocteau

The day of my birth, my death began its walk. It is walking toward me, without hurrying.

— Jean Cocteau

The extreme limit of wisdom, that's what the public calls madness.

— Jean Cocteau

The greatest masterpiece in literature is only a dictionary out of order.

— Jean Cocteau

The instinct of nearly all societies is to lock up anybody who is truly free. First, society begins by trying to beat you up. If this fails, they try to poison you. If this fails too, the finish by loading honors on your head.

— Jean Cocteau

The joy of the young is to disobey - but the trouble is that there are no longer any orders.

— Jean Cocteau

The poet doesn't invent. He listens.

— Jean Cocteau