Quotes By Leonard Cohen

My two great heroes are W. B. Yeats and Fernando Garcia Lorca.

A woman watches her body uneasily, as though it were an unreliable ally in the battle for love.

And I had not much of a voice. I didn't play that great guitar either.

We're always experiencing joy or sadness. But there are lots of people who've closed down. And there are times in one's life when one has to close down just to regroup.

Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash.

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.

Most of the time one is discouraged by the work, but now and again by some grace something stands out and invites you to work on it, to elaborate it or animate it in some way. It's a mysterious process.

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

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

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.

I don't really understand that process called reincarnation but if there is such a thing I'd like to come back as my daughter's dog.

The older I get, the surer I am that I'm not running the show.

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.

I am an old scholar, better-looking now than when I was young. That's what sitting on your ass does to your face.

Children show scars like medals. Lovers use them as secrets to reveal. A scar is what happens when the word is made flesh.

Music is the emotional life of most people.

I don't consider myself a pessimist. I think of a pessimist as someone who is waiting for it to rain. And I feel soaked to the skin.

Prayer is translation. A man translates himself into a child asking for all there is in a language he has barely mastered.

Success is survival.

I speak of a clinical depression that is the background of your entire life, a background of anguish and anxiety, a sense that nothing goes well, that pleasure is unavailable and all your strategies collapse.

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.

If I knew where the good songs came from, I'd go there more often.

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

We used to play music for fun. Much more than now. Now nobody picks up a guitar unless they're paid for it.

The term clinical depression finds its way into too many conversations these days. One has a sense that a catastrophe has occurred in the psychic landscape.

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.

When things get really bad, just raise your glass and stamp your feet and do a little jig. That's about all you can do.

As a young man, Yeats spoke to me in a way I could understand. Shakespeare I couldn't understand, but Yeats I could. It was his subject matter and also I really admired the way he put his personal life on the line.

There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in.

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