Leonard Cohen

I didn't want to write for pay. I wanted to be paid for what I write.

There are no letters in the mailbox_x000D_ _x000D_ And there are no grapes upon the vine_x000D_ _x000D_ And there are no chocolates in your boxes anymore_x000D_ _x000D_ And there are no diamonds in the mine

I listen to the radio and I like all kinds of music, you know, but I like to hear from people who have been there. Hank Williams has been there.

Raise a million filters and the rain will not be clean, until the longing for it be refined in deep confession.

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.

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.

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.

To every people the land is given on condition. Perceived or not, there is a Covenant, beyond the constitution, beyond sovereign guarantee, beyond the nation's sweetest dreams of itself.

Prayer is translation. A man translates himself into a child asking for all there is in a language he has barely mastered.

I always considered myself a minor writer. My province is small, and I try to explore it very, very thoroughly.

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.

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

Children show scars like medals. Lovers use them as secrets to reveal. A scar is what happens when the word is made flesh.

A scar is what happens when the word is made flesh.

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.

I found that things became a lot easier when I no longer expected to win. You abandon your masterpiece and sink into the real masterpiece.

Please make me empty, if I'm empty then I can receive, if I can receive it means it comes from somewhere outside of me, if it comes from outside of me I'm not alone! I cannot bear this loneliness. Above all it is loneliness.

Do not be a magician - be magic!

How can I begin anything new with all of yesterday in me?

Dream after dream we all lie in each other's arms

I bargain now. I offer buttons for his love.