Quotes from Leonard Cohen

a fresh spiderweb billowing like a spinnaker across the open window and here he is the little master sailing by on a thread of milk wish me luck admiral I haven't finished anything in a long time

I can't run no more with that lawless crowd while the killers in high places say their prayers out loud. But they've summoned, they've summoned up a thundercloud and they're going to hear from me. Ring the bells that still can ring Forget your perfect offering There is a crack in everything That's how the light gets in.

When passion dies friendship hovers round our flesh like flies

Except for a couple of hours in the morning which I passed in the company of a sage I stayed in bed without food only a few mouthfuls of water "you are a fine looking old man" I said to myself in the mirror "and what is more you have the correct attitude You don't care if it ends or if it goes on And as for the women and the music there will be plenty of that in Paradise" Then I went to the Mosque of Memory to express my gratitude

As I grew older, I understood that instructions came with this voice. What were these instructions? The instructions were never to lament casually. And if one is to express the great inevitable defeat that awaits us all, it must be done within the strict confines of dignity and beauty.

I'll be marching through the morning, Marching through the night, Moving 'cross the borders Of My Secret Life.

So I must say it quickly; Whoever is in your life, those that harm you, those that help you; those whom you know and those whom you do not know -- let them off the hook, help them off the hook. Recognize the hook. You are listening to radio resistance.

Dear friend, I have searched all night through each burnt paper, but I fear I will never find the formula to let you die

Your faith was strong, but you needed proof...

There is a war between the rich and poor, a war between the man and the woman. There is a war between the ones who say there is a war and the ones who say there isn't.

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.

Coroner's inquest: death by drowning. And he hasn't been to the sea-shore in ten years.

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

Dear Hitler Take away the torches I'm not guilty I had to have this

He hated the men floating in sleep in the big stone houses. Because their lives were ordered and their rooms tidy. Because they got up every morning and did their public work. Because they weren't going to dynamite their factories and have naked parties in the fire.

I am running through a snowfall which is her thighs, he dramatized in purple. Her thighs are filling up the street. Wide as a snowfall, heavy as huge falling Zeppelins, her damp thighs are settling on the sharp roofs and wooden balconies. Weather-vanes press the shape of roosters and sail-boats into the skin. The faces of famous statues are preserved like intaglios....

Even without the mushroom cloud still I would have hated Listen I would have done the same things even if there were no death I will not be held like a drunkard under the cold tap of facts I refuse the universal alibi

Going nowhere … isn't about turning your back on the world; it's about stepping away now and then so that you can see the world more clearly and love it more deeply.

what is most original in a man's nature is often that which is most desperate. thus new systems are forced on the world by men who simply cannot bear the pain of living with what is. creators care nothing for their systems except that they be unique. if Hitler had been born in Nazi Germany he wouldn't have been content to enjoy the atmosphere.

You came to me this morning And you handled me like meat You'd have to be a man to know How good that feels, how sweet

You don't know me from the wind you never will, you never did I'm the little jew who wrote the Bible. I've seen the nations rise and fall I've heard their stories, heard them all but love's the only engine of survival.

Poetry is a verdict, not an occupation.

I salute you Brave spirit Who has swallowed so much And tasted so little.

I didn't kill myself when things went wrong I didn't turn to drugs or teaching I tried to sleep but when I couldn't sleep I learned to write I learned to write what might be read on nights like this by one like me