Quotes from Leonard Cohen

The truth of the line overwhelms all other considerations" 1/24/03

His knowledge of ancient Greece was based entirely on a poem Edgar Allan Poe, a few homosexual encounters with restaurateurs (he ate free at almost every soda fountain in the city), and a plaster reproduction of the Akropolis which, for some reason, he had coated with red nail polish.

everybody wants a box of chocolates and a long-stemmed rose

Well they lay down beside me I made my confession to them. They touched both my eyes And I touched the dew on their hem. When your life is a leaf that the seasons tear off and condemn, they will bind you with love that is graceful and green as a stem.

steer your way through the pain that is far more real than you

There is only one emotion which money has ever extended to idealism - contempt." - Loneliness and History

L'autostrada era vuota. Erano gli unici due in fuga e questa consapevolezza li rendeva più amici che mai. Bravman ne era inebriato. Diceva: "Krantz, di noi troveranno solo una striscia d'olio sul pavimento del garage, senza nemmeno i riflessi dell'arcobaleno". Ultimamente Krantz era molto silenzioso, ma Breavman era sicuro che pensasse le stesse cose.

Listen I would have done the same things even if there were no death.

only one thing made him happy and now that it was gone everything made him happy

I read the bill of human rights And some of it was true But there wasn't any burden left So I'm laying it on you

need to see I never saw your need for me your longing raw

Though I don't believe, I come to you now, and I lift my doubt to your mercy.

and once again I am a singer in the lower choirs, born fifty years ago to raise my voice this high, and no higher.

In the thin light of hunted pleasure, I become afraid that I will never know my sorrow. I call on you with a cry that concentrates the heart. When will I cry out in gratitude? When will I sing to your mercy?

The silver knives are flashing in that tired old cafe...

I'm blackening pages, but I don't know if it's writing.

Sit in a chair and keep still. Let the dancer's shoulders emerge from your shoulders, the dancer's chest from your chest, the dancer's loins from your loins, the dancer's hips and thighs from yours; and from your silence the throat that makes a sound, and from your bafflement a clear song to which the dancer moves...

Kindle the darkness of my calling, let me cry to the one who judges the heart in justice and mercy. Arouse my heart again with the limitless breath you breathe into me, arouse the secret from obscurity.

SIT IN A CHAIR AND KEEP still. Let the dancer's shoulders emerge from your shoulders, the dancer's chest from your chest, the dancer's loins from your loins, the dancer's hips and thighs from yours; and from your silence the throat that makes a sound, and from your bafflement a clear song to which the dancer moves, and let him serve God in beauty.

Establish your law in this walled place. Let nine men come to lift me into their prayer so that I may whisper with them: Blessed be the name of the glory of the kingdom forever and forever.

Then it turned into a game. Games are nature's most beautiful creation. All animals play games, and the truly Messianic vision of the brotherhood of creatures must be based on the idea of the game, indeed-

Sit down, master on this rude chair of praises, and rule my nervous heart with your great decrees of freedom.

O master of my breath, create a man around these nostrils, and gather my heart toward the gravity of your name. Form me again with an utterance and open my mouth with your praise. There is no life but in affirming you, no world to walk on but the one which you create.

and tremble before the furnace of light in which you are formed and to which you return, until the time when he suspends his light and withdraws into himself, and there is no world, and there is no soul anywhere.