Quotes from Leonard Cohen

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

They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom...for trying to change the system from within

So I must say it quickly: Whoever is in your life, those who harm you, those who 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.

No sospeché la insignificancia de mi sueño. Creí haber concebido el sueño más vasto de mi generación: quse ser mago. Ésa era mi idea de la gloria. He aquí una súplica basada en toda mi experiencia: no seas mago, sé mágico.

I'm old and the mirrors don't lie.

What I loved in my old life--I haven't forgotten--it lives in my spine.

Bind me to your will, bind me with these threads of sorrow, and gather me out of the afternoon where I have torn my soul on twenty monstrous altars, offering all things but myself.

War is wonderful. They'll never stamp it out. It's one of the few times people can act their best. It's so economical in terms of gesture and motion, every single gesture is precise, every effort is at its maximum. Nobody goofs off. Everybody is responsible for his brother.

Now I need your hidden love, I'm cold as a new razor blade. You left when I told you I was curious… I never said that I was brave. from "So Long Marianne

As he died to make men holy, let us die to make things cheap.

Catherine Tekakwitha, who are you? Are you (1656-1680)? Is that enough? Are you the Iroquois Virgin? Are you the Lily of the Shores of the Mohawk River? Can I love you in my own way?

better than wild is secretly wild

BLESSED ARE YOU WHO HAS given each man a shield of loneliness so that he cannot forget you. You are the truth of loneliness, and only your name addresses it. Strengthen my loneliness that I may be healed in your name, which is beyond all consolations that are uttered on this earth. Only in your name can I stand in the rush of time, only when this loneliness is yours can I lift my sins toward your mercy.

If only my genitals didn't float When I relaxed in the bath And we both looked down and we both agreed It's stupid to be a man

BODY OF LONELINESS She entered my foot with her foot and she entered my waist with her snow. She entered my heart saying, "Yes, that's right." And so the Body of Loneliness was covered from without, and from within the Body of Loneliness was embraced. Now every time I try to draw a breath she whispers to my breathlessness, "Yes, my love, that's right, that's right.

How may we be saints and live in golden coffins Who will leave on our stone shelves pathetic notes for intervention How may we be calm marble gods at ocean altars Who will murder us for some high reason

I remember what Ben Jonson said: 'I've studied all the philosophies and all the theologies but cheerfulness keeps breaking through.

It looks like freedom but it feels like death, it's something in between I guess. It's closing time.

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

To a Young Nun This undemanding love that our staggered births have purchased for us — You in your generation, I in mine. I am not the one you are looking for. You are not the one I've stopped looking for. How sweetly time disposes of us as we go arm in arm over the Bridge of Details: Your turn to chop. My turn to cook. Your turn to die for love. My turn to resurrect.

I write to murder the selves that whisper untruths to me.

And summoned now to deal with your invincible defeat You live your life As if it's real

I needed so much To have nothing to touch I've always been greedy that way

I DRAW ASIDE THE CURTAIN. You mock us with the beauty of your world.