Quotes by Leonard Cohen

About Leonard Cohen:

Leonard Norman Cohen is a Canadian singer, songwriter, musician, painter, poet, and novelist. His work has explored religion, politics, isolation, sexuality, and personal relationships. Cohen has been inducted into both the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame as well as the American Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He is also a Companion of the Order of Canada, the nation's highest civilian honor. In 2011, Cohen received a Princess of Asturias Awards for literature.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in.

Leonard Cohen

Believe nothing of me except that I felt your beauty more closely than my own.

Leonard Cohen

If I spelled out the Principles of Faith I would be barking on the moon.

Leonard Cohen

Dear friend, I have searched all night through each burnt paper, but I fear I will never find the formula to let you die

Leonard Cohen

And may my bronze name / touch always her thousand fingers / grow brighter with her weeping / until I am fixed like a galaxy / and memorized / in her secret and fragile skies.

Leonard Cohen

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

Leonard Cohen

And I'll dance with you in Vienna, I'll be wearing a river's disguise. The hyacinth wild on my shoulder my mouth on the dew of your thighs. And I'll bury my soul in a scrapbook, with the photographs there and the moss. And I'll yield to the flood of ...

Leonard Cohen

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

Leonard Cohen

I don't consider myself a pessimist. I think of a pessimist as someone who is waiting for it to rain. And I feel soaked to the skin.

Leonard Cohen

Act the way you'd like to be and soon you'll be the way you act.

Leonard Cohen

The last refuge of the insomniac is a sense of superiority to the sleeping world.

Leonard Cohen

I am an old scholar, better-looking now than when I was young. That's what sitting on your ass does to your face.

Leonard Cohen

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

Leonard Cohen

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

Leonard Cohen

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.

Leonard Cohen

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

Leonard Cohen

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.

Leonard Cohen

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.

Leonard Cohen

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

Leonard Cohen

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.

Leonard Cohen

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.

Leonard Cohen

Author Bio

  • NameLeonard Cohen
  • DescriptionCanadian poet and singer-songwriter
  • AliasesLeonard Norman Cohen
  • BornSeptember 21, 1934
  • CountryCanada
  • ProfessionSinger-songwriter; Poet; Street Artist; Novelist; Writer
  • WorksSongs From A Room; Various Positions; Old Ideas; The Future; Hallelujah
  • AwardsCompanion Of The Order Of Canada; Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award; Songwriters Hall Of Fame; Glenn Gould Prize; Governor General's Awards; Grand Officer Of The National Order Of Quebec; Governor General’s Performing Arts Award; Prince Of Asturia Literary Prize