“Here I am trying to live, or rather I am trying to teach the death within me to live.”
A gay French artist and writer born in the late 1800's, Cocteau dabbled in a variety of artistic endeavors including poetry, fiction, film, ballet, painting, and opera. He traveled in circles that included such luminaries as Pablo Picasso and was branded "decadent" by the French government due to his avant-garde lifestyle and creations. Some of Cocteau's most famous works include the book, "Les Enfants Terribles", the play "The Infernal Machine" and the film "Blood of a Poet".