I am an old scholar, better-looking now than when I was young. That's what sitting on your ass does to your face.
Interpretation
This quote humorously reflects on aging and the effects of a sedentary lifestyle.
Leonard Cohen uses humor to express the paradox of aging, suggesting that he may look better as an older person due to the lack of stress and effort associated with being active. The quote plays with the idea that a relaxed lifestyle can lead to unexpected benefits, such as a more favorable appearance, despite societal norms that often link youth with beauty.
In practice
During a toast at a gathering of seniors, someone might quote this to lighten the mood.
What is most original in a man's nature is often that which is most desperate. Thus new systems are forced on the world by men who simply cannot bear the pain of living with what is. Creators care nothing for their systems except that they be unique. If Hitler had been born in Nazi Germany he wouldn't have been content to enjoy the atmosphere.
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.
Be With Me In The Phases Of My Work Because My Brain Feels Like It Has Been Whipped And I Yearn To Make A Small Perfect Thing Which Will Live In Your Morning Like Curious Static Through A President's Elegy Or A Nude Hunchback Acquiring A Tan On The Crowded Oily Beach.
I heard of a man who says words so beautifully that if he only speaks their name women give themselves to him. If I am dumb beside your body while silence blossoms like tumors on our lips it is because I hear a man climb stairs and clear his throat outside our door.
I think what we like about music - and what we like about art in general....is that enterprise that stops our minds from spinning. Because we're always all over the place. A good song, a good lyric is a movie: it will just focus and calm and confer significance on this completely bewildering reality that all of us live in.
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.
If you can't make fun of yourself, you don't have any right to make fun of others
A bore is someone who deprives you of solitude without providing you with company.
....basically the sort of guy who looks entirely at home in sockless white loafers and a mint-green knit shirt from Lacoste.
TAIL, n. The part of an animal's spine that has transcended its natural limitations to set up an independent existence in a world of its own.
Making people laugh is so much more difficult than making them sad. Too much fiction defaults to the somber, the tragic. This is because sad endings are easy in comparison - happy endings aren't at all simple to earn, especially when writing to an audience jaded by them.
The aim of a joke is not to degrade the human being, but to remind him that he is already degraded.
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