I don't think you can write no...

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

Journalists, especially Englis...

Journalists, especially English journalists, were very cruel to me. They said I only knew three chords when I knew five!

As a young man, Yeats spoke to...

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.

Most of the time one is discou...

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.

This is the most challenging a...

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.

I can work on a verse for a ve...

I can work on a verse for a very long time before realising it's not any good and then, and only then, can I discard it.

I never really liked poetry re...

I never really liked poetry readings; I liked to read poetry by myself, but I liked singing, chanting my lyrics to this jazz group.

I was 15 when I first became d...

I was 15 when I first became deeply touched by the rhythm and structure of words.

My sense of proprietorship has...

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.

The term clinical depression f...

The term clinical depression finds its way into too many conversations these days. One has a sense that a catastrophe has occurred in the psychic landscape.

Out of the thousands who are k...

Out of the thousands who are known or who want to be known as poets, maybe one or two are genuine and the rest are fakes, hanging around the sacred precincts, trying to look like the real thing.

Any startling piece of work ha...

Any startling piece of work has a subversive element in it, a delicious element often. Subversion is only disagreeable when it manifests in political or social activity.

I always thought that poetry i...

I always thought that poetry is the verdict that others give to a certain kind of writing. So to call yourself a poet is a kind of dangerous description. It's for others; it's for others to use.

I think the term poet is a ver...

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.

It's four in the morning, the ...

It's four in the morning, the end of december I'm writing you now just to see if you're better.

We are not mad. We are human.W...

We are not mad. We are human.We want to love, and someone must forgive us for the paths we take to love, for the paths are many and dark, and we are ardent and cruel in our journey.

Show me slowly what I only kno...

Show me slowly what I only know the limits of Dance me to the end of love

Get ready for the future: it i...

Get ready for the future: it is murder.

Seven to eleven is a huge chun...

Seven to eleven is a huge chunk of life, full of dulling and forgetting. It is fabled that we slowly lose the gift of speech with animals, that birds no longer visit our windowsills to converse. As our eyes grow accustomed to sight they armor themselves against wonder.

I am not the one who loves -

I am not the one who loves -
It's love that chooses me.

Leonard Cohen 03.03.2018 03:03:03 302 quotes