“My reputation as a ladies’ man was a joke. It caused me to laugh bitterly through the 10,000 nights I spent alone.”
— Leonard Cohen
“I never really liked poetry readings; I liked to read poetry by myself, but I liked singing, chanting my lyrics to this jazz group.”
— Leonard Cohen
“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.”
— Leonard Cohen
“Success is survival.”
— Leonard Cohen
“Let judges secretly despair of justice: their verdicts will be more acute. Let generals secretly despair of triumph killing will be defamed. Let priests secretly despair of faith: their compassion will be true.”
— Leonard Cohen
“At a certain point, if you still have your marbles and are not faced with serious financial challenges, you have a chance to put your house in order. It’s a cliche, but it’s underestimated as an analgesic on all levels. Putting your house in order, if you can do it, is one of the most comforting activities, and the benefits of it are incalculable.”
— Leonard Cohen
“Music is the emotional life of most people.”
— Leonard Cohen
“I think the term poet is a very exalted term and should be applied to a man at the end of his work. When he looks back over the body of his work and he’s written poetry then let the verdict be that he’s a poet.”
— Leonard Cohen
“To every people the land is given on condition. Perceived or not, there is a Covenant, beyond the constitution, beyond sovereign guarantee, beyond the nation’s sweetest dreams of itself.”
— Leonard Cohen
“In dreams the truth is learned that all good works are done in the absence of a caress.”
— Leonard Cohen
“Children show scars like medals. Lovers use them as a secrets to reveal. A scar is what happens when the word is made flesh.”
— Leonard Cohen
“I want history to jump on Canada’s spine with sharp skates.”
— Leonard Cohen
“It looks like freedom but it feels like death, it’s something in between I guess. It’s closing time.”
— Leonard Cohen
“There is a crack in everything”
— Leonard Cohen
“Remember when I moved in you and the holy dove was moving too, and every breath we drew was, “Hallelujah.”
— Leonard Cohen
“Everybody knows that the dice are loadedEverybody rolls with their fingers crossedEverybody knows the war is overEverybody knows the good guys lostEverybody knows the fight was fixedThe poor stay poor, the rich get richThat’s how it goesEverybody knows”
— Leonard Cohen
“Dear friend, I have searched all nightthrough each burnt paper,but I fear I will never findthe formula to let you die”
— Leonard Cohen
“I know she is coming I know she will look And that is the longing And this is the book.”
— Leonard Cohen
“The RemoteI often think about youwhen I’m lying alone inmy room with my mouthopen and the remotelost somewhere in the bed.”
— Leonard Cohen
“If I spelled out the Principles of FaithI would be barking on the moon.”
— Leonard Cohen
“Show me slowly what I onlyknow the limits ofDance me to the end of love”
— Leonard Cohen
“Sexuality is general, and although only one man may be receiving the favors of a woman, all men in her presence are warm. That’s the great generosity of women and the great generosity of the creator who worked it out that way, that there are no unilateral agreements of sexuality.”
— Leonard Cohen
“You should gofrom place to placerecovering the poemsthat have been written for youto which you can affix your signature.Don’t discuss these matterswith anyone.Retrieve. Retrieve.When the basket is fullsomeone will appearto whom you can present it.”
— Leonard Cohen
“It is easy to display a wound, the proud scars of combat. It is hard to show a pimple”
— Leonard Cohen
“My animal howlsMy angel’s upsetBut I’m not allowedA trace of regret”
— Leonard Cohen
“Though I love your company, your instructions are wasted her. I will always choose the woman who caries me off, I will always sit with the family of loneliness.”
— Leonard Cohen
“Blessed is the covenant of love, the covenant of mercy, useless light behind the terror, deathless song in the house of night.”
— Leonard Cohen
“Blessed are you who circled desire with a blade, and the garden with fiery swords, and heaven and earth with a word.”
— Leonard Cohen
“There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.”
— Leonard Cohen
“How quickly pettiness returns, and that most ignoble form of real estate, the possessive occupation and tyranny over two square inches of human flesh, the wife’s cunt.”
— Leonard Cohen