Leonard Cohen Quotes - Page 2

When you stop thinking about yourself all the time, a certain sense of repose overtakes you.

Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash.

I don't know which side is anybody on any more. I don't really care. There is a moment when we have to transcend the side we're on and understand that we are creatures of a higher order.

Growing old becomes clear to you at a certain point. I think it's after the age of 70 you realize - you begin to actually be convinced - you're growing older.

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.

The less I was of who I was, the better I felt.

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

Your heart opens and of course you're completely panicked because you're used to guarding this organ with your life.

Do not be a magician - be magic!

When we are touched by a song, it is because the artist cannot hide himself.

Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin Dance me through the panic 'til I'm gathered safely in Lift me like an olive branch and be my homeward dove Dance me to the end of love

I don't think there's any difference between a crush and profound love. I think the experience is that you dissolve your sentries and your battalions for a moment and you really do see that there is this unfixed free-flowing energy of emotion and thought between people, that it really is there.

The big change is the proximity to death.

You live your life as if it's real.......a thousand kisses deep

Like a bird on a wire, like a drunk in a midnight choir, I have tried in my way to be free!!

Deprivation is the mother of poetry.

I don't really understand that process called reincarnation but if there is such a thing I'd like to come back as my daughter's dog.

I want to be paid for my work, not work for my pay.

At the very center of our culture is a crucified man, a tortured man hanging on a cross of wood. You have an image of violence at the very center of our spiritual investigation.

Everybody knows the dice are loaded.

It's been a long time since I've stood on a stage in London. Was about 14 or 15 years ago, I was 60 years old, just a kid with a crazy dream. Since then I've taken a lot of Prozac, Paxil, Wellbutrin, Effexor, Ritalin, Focalin. I've also studied deeply in the philosophies and the religions, but cheerfulness kept breaking through.

My page was too white My ink was too thin The day wouldn't write What the night pencilled in.

The cutting of the gem has to be finished before you can see whether it shines.

Nothing can stop you from thinking. The human mind is designed to think continually.