French writer and filmmaker (1889–1963)
He wrote novels, directed films, drew, designed, and staged plays — yet insisted he was only ever a poet, just working in different rooms. That umbrella let Cocteau slip between Surrealism, Dada, and a dozen other movements without joining any, making him the era's most variously expressive artist and possibly its last Renaissance man.
Born July 1889, Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau spent the first half of the 20th century proving a single artist could work everywhere at once. Novels arrived first — Le Grand Écart in 1923, Le Livre blanc in 1928, Les Enfants Terribles in 1929 — then plays including La Voix Humaine in 1930 and La Machine Infernale four years later. By then he'd already made The Blood of a Poet, the 1930 film that opened what became his Orphic Trilogy, completed three decades later with Orpheus and Testament of Orpheus. In between came Beauty and the Beast in 1946 and a screen adaptation of his own Les Par…
Sourced, dated quotes from Jean Cocteau
One of the characteristics of the dream is that nothing surprises us in it. With no regret, we agree to live in it with strangers, completely cut off from our habits and friends.
What is line? It is life. A line must live at each point along its course in such a way that the artist’s presence makes itself felt above that of the model...
Mystery has its own mysteries, and there are gods above gods. We have ours, they have theirs. That is what’s known as infinity.
Wealth is an inborn attitude of mind, like poverty. The pauper who has made his pile may flaunt his spoils, but cannot wear them plausibly.
True realism consists in revealing the surprising things which habit keeps covered and prevents us from seeing.
The six component signals behind the Fame score, and their ranks across the leaderboards.
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