It Gives the Orders; I Follow

Our Art of Fiction interview with Jean Cocteau.

The Paris Review Redux: free interviews, stories, poems, and art from the archives of The Paris Review. View this email in your browser Photography of Jean Cocteau, 1923. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. "The poet is a servant of forces that he does not understand," wrote Jean Cocteau in an excerpt we published last week, a selection of his notes from a long train journey back to Paris in 1945. "He must keep the house clean. His progress can only be moral." This week, we're unlocking our Art of Fiction interview with Jean Cocteau, which was published in issue no. 32 of the Review. INTERVIEW The Art of Fiction No. 34 Jean Cocteau INTERVIEWER Some moments ago, you spoke of this "other." I think we would do well to try to pin down what you mean by that. Picasso has spoken of it—said it is the real doer of his creation—and you have during our earlier talks. How would you define it?  COCTEAU I feel myself inhabited by a force or being—very little known to me. It gives the orders; I follow. The conception of my novel Les Enfants Terribles came to me from a friend, from what he told me of a circle: a family closed from societal life. I commenced to write: exactly seventeen pages per day. It went well. I was pleased with it. Very. There was in the original life story some connection with America, and I had something I wanted to say about America. Poof! The being in me did not want to write that! Dead halt. A month of stupid staring at paper unable to say anything. One day it commenced again in its own way. From issue no. 32 (Summer–Fall 1964) Copyright © 2023 The Paris Review. All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in via our website. Our mailing address is: The Paris Review 544 West 27th Street 3rd Floor New York, New York 10001 Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe, if you must.