Top 432 Quotes & Sayings by Leonard Cohen - Page 2

There are some people who come to me for some illumination on their problems. I guess they feel I'm writing about some of the things they themselves are going through. But I don't usually have much help to give - there isn't much you can say to someone in the midst of their own crises.

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.

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.

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.

I've got beautiful reviews for all my books, and I'm very well thought of in the tiny circles that know me, but I'm really starving.

I had a very messianic childhood.

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 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've never sold widely enough to be able to relax about money. I had two kids and their mother to support and my own life. So there was never an option of cutting out.

One of the reasons I'm on tour is to meet people. I consider it a reconnaissance. You know, I consider myself like in a military operation. I don't feel like a citizen.

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

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.

I don't think you can write novels on the road. You need a certain stability.

There's always a group of songs that I'm working at. Some of them are 10 years old, and some of them are just a few weeks old. I'm always trying to adjust these songs to some position where I can bring them to completion.

There were times that I thought I was good looking.

I always felt I was scraping the bottom of the barrel trying to get a song together.

My sense of proprietorship has been so weak that actually I didn't pay attention and I lost the copyrights on a lot of the songs.

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.

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

Everybody knows the dice are loaded.

I don't think there's any difference between a crush and profound love. I think the experience is that you dissolve your sentries and your battalions for a moment and you really do see that there is this unfixed free-flowing energy of emotion and thought between people, that it really is there.

In the broken places, the light shines through.

Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin Dance me through the panic 'til I'm gathered safely in Lift me like an olive branch and be my homeward dove Dance me to the end of love

Well, you know, there's depression and depression. What I mean by depression in my own case is that depression isn't just the blues. It's not just like I have a hangover in the weekend ... the girl didn't show up or something like that. It isn't that. It's not really depression, it's a kind of mental violence which stops you from functioning properly from one moment to the next. You lose something somewhere and suddenly you're gripped by a kind of angst of the heart and of the spirit.

To keep our hearts open is probably the most urgent responsibility you have as you get older.

I’ve seen the nations rise and fall. I’ve heard their stories, heard them all, but love’s the only engine of survival.

If you don't become the ocean, you'll be seasick every day.

Fare thee well my nightingale, I lived but to be near you. Thow you are singing somewhere still I can no longer hear you.

It's the notion that there is no perfection - that there is a broken world and we live with broken hearts and broken lives but still there is no alibi for anything. On the contrary, you have to stand up and say hallelujah under those circumstances.

Your heart opens and of course you're completely panicked because you're used to guarding this organ with your life.

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

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

Reality is one of the possibilities I cannot afford to ignore

You lose your grip, and then you slip into the Masterpiece.

We are so small between the stars, so large against the sky.

I wish I could say everything in one word. I hate all the things that can happen between the beginning of a sentence and the end.

How can I begin anything new with all of yesterday in me?

Never make a decision when you need to pee.

Do not be a magician - be magic!

I want to be paid for my work, not work for my pay.

At the very center of our culture is a crucified man, a tortured man hanging on a cross of wood. You have an image of violence at the very center of our spiritual investigation.

The cutting of the gem has to be finished before you can see whether it shines.

I don't know which side is anybody on any more. I don't really care. There is a moment when we have to transcend the side we're on and understand that we are creatures of a higher order.

The troubles came and I saved what I could save. A thread of light, a particle, a wave.

Follow me, the wise man said, but he walked behind.

Love is the only engine of survival

I see people allowing their lives to diminish, to become shallow, so they can't enjoy the deep wells of experience. Maybe it's always been this way, when the heart tends to shut down. If only the heart shut down and there were no repercussions, it would be O.K., but when the heart shuts down, the whole system goes into a kind of despair that is intolerable.

My page was too white My ink was too thin The day wouldn't write What the night pencilled in.

I found that things became a lot easier when I no longer expected to win. You abandon your masterpiece and sink into the real masterpiece.

May you be surrounded by friends and family, and if this is not your lot, may the blessings find you in your solitude.

We are not mad. We are human.We want to love, and someone must forgive us for the paths we take to love, for the paths are many and dark, and we are ardent and cruel in our journey.

We are so lightly here. It is in love that we are made. In love we disappear.

The less I was of who I was, the better I felt.

You who wish to conquer pain, you must learn what makes one kind.

It's been a long time since I've stood on a stage in London. Was about 14 or 15 years ago, I was 60 years old, just a kid with a crazy dream. Since then I've taken a lot of Prozac, Paxil, Wellbutrin, Effexor, Ritalin, Focalin. I've also studied deeply in the philosophies and the religions, but cheerfulness kept breaking through.

You live your life as if it's real.......a thousand kisses deep

Like a bird on a wire, like a drunk in a midnight choir, I have tried in my way to be free!!

I greet you from the other side of sorrow and despair, with a love so vast and shattered it will reach you everywhere.

When we are touched by a song, it is because the artist cannot hide himself.

Avoid the flourish. Do not be afraid to be weak. Do not be ashamed to be tired. You look good when you’re tired. You look like you could go on forever. Now come into my arms. You are the image of my beauty .