Quotes from Leonard Cohen

Well, for one thing, in the tradition of Zen that I've practiced, there is no prayerful worship and there is no affirmation of a deity.

I can make a couple of good sandwiches: tuna salad and chopped egg salad. And Greek bean soup. I was a cook for my old Zen master for many years. So there were two or three dishes that he liked, you know. Teriyaki salmon, a few things.

I want history to jump on Canada's spine with sharp skates.

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.

After a while, if you are sufficiently bored or unemployed, you may want to read it from cover to cover.

I had girlfriends who really irritated me by their devotion to the Beatles. I didn't begrudge them their interest, and there were songs like 'Hey Jude' that I could appreciate. But they didn't seem to be essential to the kind of nourishment that I craved.

I like life on the road. It's a lot easier than civilian life. You kind of feel like you're in a motorcycle gang.

There is a war between the ones who say there is a war and the ones who say there isn't.

Everybody knows that the dice are loaded, Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed, Everybody knows that the war is over, Everybody knows the good guys lost.

The wars they will be fought again The holy dove be caught again bought and sold and bought again; the dove is never free.

My reputation as a ladies' man was a joke. It caused me to laugh bitterly through the 10,000 nights I spent alone.

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

My reputation as a ladies' man was a joke that caused me to laugh bitterly through the ten thousand nights I spent alone.

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

When things get really bad, just raise your glass and stamp your feet and do a little jig. That's about all you can do.

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.

He can love the shape of human beings, the fine and twisted shapes of the heart. It is good to have among us such men, such balancing monsters of love.

History is a needle for putting men asleep anointed with the poison Of all they want to keep.

All men will be sailors then Until the sea shall free them

We used to play music for fun. Much more than now. Now nobody picks up a guitar unless they're paid for it.

To the men and women who own men and women those of us meant to be lovers we will not pardon you for wasting our bodies and time

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.

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.

The older I get, the surer I am that I'm not running the show.