Jean Cocteau Quotes

I think the only way to achieve something that's classic is to be in the moment. You don't sit around and think, 'Oh, I hope this is remembered forever!' You just have to be honest, and I think that requires being in the moment.

You can tell an honest artist from one who's just given all their songs.

I would hate to make music and people love me for something that isn't me.

The big cop-out would be to accept popularity rather than opting to try to create potent work. It's so easy to do the popular thing, the expected thing, and that's where you start to cheat yourself - and your fans, in the end - because there's an inherent dishonesty in pandering and dishing up what everyone's expecting.

If you try to go beyond your interests just for the sake of pretensions or wealth, your art becomes less legitimate.

I'm not just painting for painting's sake. I want to be truthful.

If you pretend to be somebody that you're not when you write songs - and I did that on some of the early Styx albums - nobody cares about what you have to say.

I've got a long list of things I consider to be selling out. But amongst that list, one of them is when you make art without putting your guard down.

Regardless of theology or however you see life or relate to worshiping God, as an artist, my job is to tell the truth and then try to connect with these characters and people as honestly and deeply as possible.

I just like stuff that's raw, itself, real and genuine. I think that's the way art should be. That's the kind of stuff that people can connect to more.

Avarice is the miser's dream, as fame is the poet's.

I'm living a dream. I hope in 10 years people will know me as a gold medalist.

I believe that poets have to be inside their poems somewhere, or the poem won't work.

Poet's food is love and fame.

You always dream about being on a baseball card. It's kind of funny when you finally see it.

A writer never forgets the first time he accepted a few coins or a word of praise in exchange for a story. He will never forget the sweet poison of vanity in his blood and the belief that, if he succeeds in not letting anyone discover his lack of talent, the dream of literature will provide him with a roof over his head, a hot meal at the end of the day, and what he covets the most: his name printed on a miserable piece of paper that surely will outlive him. A writer is condemned to remember that moment, because from then on he is doomed and his soul has a price.

My dream had been shattered, but then re-created, fashioned into something with more meaning and becoming more precious.

When earth as if on evil dreams Looks back upon her wars, And the white light of Christ outstreams From the red disc of Mars, His fame, who led the stormy van Of battle, well may cease; But never that which crowns the man Whose victory was peace.

It's Steven's [Sebring] view of what he saw in traveling and working with me. But on another scale, I think the film [Dream of Life] is very humanistic: It touches on motherhood, death, birth, art, laundry, anger against the Bush administration... While I don't think it's the kind of film where one goes to find some of the darker, edgier aspects of life, the film was born of grief.

All this is a dream to me. Everything, the applause, the fans asking for autographs, the trips, all that is a dream.

I went there anyway-knowingly, willingly-because I wanted a number one hit. I wanted what Metallica had, even if it meant selling a piece of my soul to the devil.

This is a dream come true. I have wanted to tour with Green Day since I was 15.

Becoming a superstar takes about 10,000 hours of hard work.

It was a great thrill just to know Roy Orbison, so to play, sing, write hit songs with him and have him in The Traveling Wilburys was beyond my wildest dreams!

Poetry makes nothing happen.