Leonard Cohen Quotes

Oh the sisters of mercy, they are not departed or gone.

I finally broke into the prison I found my place in the chain Even damnation is poisoned with rainbows

There's always a nice tune [on radio] - helps you get the dishes done . I like to get the news from time to time - not too often. I don't feel deprived.

And sometimes when the night is slow The wretched and the meek We gather up our hearts and go A Thousand Kisses Deep.

I've forgotten most of what I've read and, frankly, it never seemed very important to me or to the world.

Friend, when you speak this carefully I know it is because you don't know what to say.

And may my bronze name / touch always her thousand fingers / grow brighter with her weeping / until I am fixed like a galaxy / and memorized / in her secret and fragile skies.

There is a war between the ones who say there is a war and the ones who say there isn't.

Nothing can stop you from thinking. The human mind is designed to think continually.

this is every musician's dream, to stand in front of an audience and not have to prove your credentials.

English, I know you ... you are German with a license to kill.

If your life is a leaf that the seasons tear off and condemn they will bind you with love that is graceful and green as a stem.

Growing old becomes clear to you at a certain point. I think it's after the age of 70 you realize - you begin to actually be convinced - you're growing older.

The winter has not killed usagain!

Like any dealer he was watching for the card that is so high and wild he'll never need to deal another. He was just some Joseph looking for a manger.

You win a while, and then it’s done - Your little winning streak.

From bitter searching of the heart, quickened with passion and with pain we rise to play a greater part this is the faith from which we start.

I can work on a verse for a very long time before realising it's not any good and then, and only then, can I discard it.

Shouldering your loneliness like a gun that you will not learn to aim, you stumble into this movie house then you climb, you climb into the frame.

Do not believe the truth. The truth is tiny compared to what you have to do.

If you're squeezed for information, / that's when you've got to play it dumb: / You just say you're out there waiting / for the miracle, for the miracle to come.

What [Prozac] does is completely annihilate the sexual drive, so the question of passion hardly arises.

Although only one man may be receiving the favors of a woman, all men in her presence are warmed.

I am not the one who loves - It's love that chooses me.

Suffering, violent suffering, seems to be something that corresponds with something that we experience.

I was 15 when I first became deeply touched by the rhythm and structure of words.

I don't even hate books anymore.

I always thought that poetry is the verdict that others give to a certain kind of writing. So to call yourself a poet is a kind of dangerous description. It's for others; it's for others to use.

I always considered myself a minor writer. My province is small, and I try to explore it very, very thoroughly.

Well, for one thing, in the tradition of Zen that I've practiced, there is no prayerful worship and there is no affirmation of a deity.

After a while, if you are sufficiently bored or unemployed, you may want to read it from cover to cover.

I never really liked poetry readings; I liked to read poetry by myself, but I liked singing, chanting my lyrics to this jazz group.

This mental space is occupied and everything is mine.

I have to finish it in order to know whether it deserves to survive.

A community is an alibi for the failure of individual love.

Just to get serious about this thing, you know. One has to be compassionate. It's true that people are up against things, economically and emotionally.

What a beautiful testament to the creative spirit and its true motives, to creative contribution coming from a place of purpose rather than a hunger for profit.

Show me slowly what I only know the limits of Dance me to the end of love

This particular school of Zen has always considered itself the Marines of the spiritual world, so it has a kind of bias against conceptual thinking in favor of a very rigorous physical life.

I think that all the spiritual training is just to be able to allow you to experience this from a slightly different perspective - one that's a little more stabilized.

It just takes a long time for me [to write a song]. I'm very slow. And it comes, kind of, by dribbles and drops.

I've seen the future and it's murder.

I've never thought of myself as a religious person.

Games are nature's most beautiful creation

Certainly within any decadent period, you would probably find the purest expressions of conviction, and I do not see that in many of the people I know.

I'm afraid to live any place but in expectation. I'm no life-risk.

Adam [Cohen] is a great singer-songwriter in his own right.

I would like to work with Pat [ Leonard] in any capacity. I would love to hear his versions.

Other people singing my songs is something that I've never been casual about. I've always been very touched by it and I always go into immediate critical suspension.

I try to make those references. I try to make sure that they're not too obscure. But outside of that, I dare not claim anything in the spiritual realm for my own.