Leonard Cohen quotes - page 9

I don't think you can write novels on the road. You need a certain stability. (Leonard Cohen)
The fact that my songs take a long time to write is no guarantee of their excellence. View quote
Leonard Cohen
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. View quote
Leonard Cohen
Although only one man may be receiving the favors of a woman, all men in her presence are warmed. That's the great Generosity of women and the great generosity of the Creator who worked it out is that there are no unilateral agreements on sexuality. View quote
Leonard Cohen
Yes, you who must leave everything that you cannot control, It begins with your family, and soon it comes round to your soul. Well I've been where you're hanging, I think I can see how you're pinned: When you're not feeling holy your loneliness says that you've sinned. View quote
Leonard Cohen
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. View quote
Leonard Cohen
I know there is an eye that watches all of us. There is a judgment that weighs everything we do. And before this great force, which is greater than any government I stand in awe and I kneel in respect and it is to this great judgment that I dedicate this next song, "Hallelujah". View quote
Leonard Cohen
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. View quote
Leonard Cohen
We're in a world where there's famine and hunger and people are dodging bullets and having their nails pulled out in dungeons so it's very hard for me to place any high value on the work that I do to write a song. Yeah, I work hard but compared to what? View quote
Leonard Cohen
You say I took the name in vain I don't even know the name But if I did, well really, what's it to you? There's a blaze of light in every word It doesn't matter which you heard The holy or the broken Hallelujah. View quote
Leonard Cohen
Now I've heard there was a secret chord That David played, and it pleased the Lord But you don't really care for music, do you? It goes like this the fourth, the fifth The minor fall, the major lift The baffled king composing Hallelujah. (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. View quote
Leonard Cohen
The candles burned The moon went down The polished hill The milky town Transparent, weightless, luminous Uncovering the two of us On that fundamental ground Where love's unwilled, unleashed, unbound And half the perfect world is found. View quote
Leonard Cohen
You go your way I'll go your way too. View quote
Leonard Cohen
We used to play music for fun. Much more than now. Now nobody picks up a guitar unless they're paid for it. View quote
Leonard Cohen
This is the most challenging activity that humans get into, which is love. You know, where we have the sense that we can't live without love. That life has very little meaning without love. View quote
Leonard Cohen
So the great affair is over but whoever would have guessed, It would leave us all so vacant and so deeply unimpressed, It's like our visit to the moon or to that other star, I guess you go for nothing if you really want to go that far. View quote
Leonard Cohen
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 . View quote
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. View quote
Leonard Cohen
A community is an alibi for the failure of individual love. View quote
Leonard Cohen
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. (Leonard Cohen)
Women stand for the objective world for a man. They stand for the thing that you're not and that's what you always reach for in a song. View quote
Leonard Cohen
I loved you in the morning, our kisses deep and warm, your hair upon the pillow like a sleepy, golden storm, yes many loved before us, I know we are not new, in city and in forest they smiled like me and you, but now it's come to distances and both of us must try, your eyes are soft with sorrow, Hey, that's no way to say goodbye. View quote
Leonard Cohen
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. View quote
Leonard Cohen
Suzanne takes you down to her place near the river. You can hear the boats go by, You can spend the night beside her, And you know that she's half crazy But that's why you want to be there, And she feeds you tea and oranges That come all the way from China. And just when you mean to tell her That you have no love to give her Then she gets you on her wavelength And she lets the river answer That you've always been her lover. And you want to travel with her, And you want to travel blind, And you know that she will trust you, For you've touched her perfect body with your mind. View quote
Leonard Cohen