Leonard Cohen Quotes

To the men and women who own men and women those of us meant to be lovers we will not pardon you for wasting our bodies and time

It's time that we began to laugh and cry and cry and laugh about it all again.

I didn't want to write for pay. I wanted to be paid for what I write.

Any startling piece of work has a subversive element in it, a delicious element often. Subversion is only disagreeable when it manifests in political or social activity.

I smile when I'm angry , I cheat and I lie. I do what I have to do to get by. But I know what is wrong and I know what is right , and I'd die for the truth in my secret life .

We do what only lovers can: make a gift out of necessity.

I kind of limp along like so many of us do in these realms. Occasionally I've felt the grace of another presence in my life. But I can't develop any kind of spiritual structure on that.

Who could have foretold the heart grows old from touching others

You were Marlon Brando, I was Steve McQueen, you were K.Y. Jelly, I was Vaseline.

You can keep the body as well-oiled and receptive as possible, but whether you're actually going to be able to go for the long haul is really not your own choice.

I've always held the song in high regard because songs have got me through so many sinks of dishes and so many humiliating courting events.

Creators care nothing for their systems except that they be unique.

How bitter were the Prozac pills of the last few hundred mornings

Your hair upon the pillow like a sleepy golden storm

I'm neither left or right. I'm just staying home tonight, getting lost in that hopeless little screen.

I don't have a television set up [in the mountains], of course, but I find I don't miss it at all, or the newspaper. I've sneaked a radio into by cabin, but I find I turn it on very rarely.

He knew that hair couldn't feel; he kissed her hair.

I think culture's always been violent, and it is something we find very entertaining. Not only does it reflect our social reality, but it also reflects our psychic reality.

It's hard to be serious about so many things. [Look at the whole emphasis] on the charts, if you're a songwriter.

[Patrick Leonard] is such a magnificent composer. I don't think there is anybody working today with those kind of skills that could translate one of my tunes into that really beautiful chamber music.

I had the title poet, and maybe I was one for a while. Also, the title singer was kindly accorded me, even though I could barely carry a tune.

All the lousy little poets coming around trying to sound like Charles Manson.

In our rags of light, all dressed to kill.

Raise a million filters and the rain will not be clean, until the longing for it be refined in deep confession.

I'm never sure why I do anything, to tell you the truth.

Maybe there's a god above but the only thing I learned from love was how to shoot at somebody who outdrew you.

Anything I tell you is an alibi for something else." Then let's be quiet together.

And most people have a woman in their heart, most men have a woman in their heart and most women have a man in their heart.

When it all comes down to dust I will kill you if I must , I will help you if I can. When it all comes down to dust I will help you if I must, I will kill you if I can.

Maybe the culture is [particularly] shabby now. Maybe it's because I'm over sixty, that I can feel that about everything.

I read with some amusement my reputation as a ladies' man. My friends are amused by that, too, because they know my life.

The art of longing's over, and it's never coming back.

Your body will never be familiar.

You've got a deadline. Well, I do, too: death.

And this is our time-keeper, with a passion for percussion

The fact that my songs take a long time to write is no guarantee of their excellence.

I think that any songwriter - and I think that Bob Dylan knows this more than all of us - you don't write the songs anyhow.

Seriousness is the deepest pleasure we have.

Ah, grief makes us precise!

Don't dwell on what has passed away or what is yet to be.

Get ready for the future: it is murder.

There's a deep tribal aspect to my own nature. So when I'm in contact with those deep resources, of course I feel a very special kind of nourishment.

When you call me close to tell me your body is not beautiful I want to summon the eyes and hidden mouths of stone and light and water to testify against you.

It is painful to recall a past intensity, to estimate your distance from the Belsen heap, to make your peace with numbers. Just to get up each morning is to make a kind of peace.

Everytime you grab at love you will lose a snowflake of your memory

You who build these altars now to sacrifice these children , you must not do it anymore. A scheme is not a vision and you never have been tempted by a demon or a god .

One is given to self-dramatization from time to time. I intend to live forever.

What were the bodies like on the beach? Ugly and white and ruined by offices.

The dreamers ride against the men of action. Oh see the men of action falling back.

Any of the decisions that I made, if one could actually locate a shape or form, were all within a wall, the landscape of music.