Leonard Cohen Quotes
-
They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom For trying to change the system from within I'm coming now, I'm coming to reward them First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin.
-
Ah, you loved me as a loser, but now you're worried that I just might win You know the way to stop me, but you don't have the discipline How many nights I prayed for this, to let my work begin First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin.
-
When they lay down beside me I made my confession to them. They touched both my eyes and I touched the dew on their hem. If your life is a leaf that the seasons tear off and condemn, They will bind you with love that is graceful and green as a stem.
-
Now, I don't want to give you the impression that I'm a great musicologist, but I'm a lot better than what I was described as for a long, long time; you know, people said I only knew three chords when I knew five.
-
It's true that all the men you knew were dealers who said they were through with dealing Every time you gave them shelter. I know that kind of man It's hard to hold the hand of anyone who is reaching for the sky just to surrender.
-
The candles burned The moon went down The polished hill The milky town Transparent, weightless, luminous Uncovering the two of us On that fundamental ground Where love's unwilled, unleashed, unbound And half the perfect world is found.
-
It's you my love, you who are the stranger.
-
The captain called me to his bed and fumbled for my hand 'Take these silver bars,' he said, 'I'm giving you command.' Command of what? There's no on here. There's only you and me. The rest are dead or in retreat or with the enemy. 'Complain, complain, that's all you've done ever since we lost, If it's not the crucifixion then it's the holocaust.'
-
So the great affair is over but whoever would have guessed it would leave us all so vacant and so deeply unimpressed. It's like our visit to the moon or to that other star I guess you go for nothing if you really want to go that far.
-
When I left they were sleeping, I hope you run into them soon. Don't turn on the lights, you can read their address by the moon. And you won't make me jealous if I hear that they sweetened your night: We weren't lovers like that and besides it would still be all right.
-
If you want a lover I'll do anything you ask me to. And if you want another kind of love I'll wear a mask for you.
-
Waiting for the miracleThere's nothing left to do.I haven't been this happysince the end of World War II.
-
I've seen the future, brother:it is murder.
-
And she shows you where to look Among the garbage and the flowers. There are heroes in the seaweed, There are children in the morning, They are leaning out for love, And they will lean that way forever, While Suzanne holds the mirror.
-
People used to say my music was too difficult or too obscure, and I never set out to be difficult or obscure. I just set out to write what I felt as honestly as I could, and I am delighted when other people feel a part of themselves in the music.
-
Here is your cross, Your nails and your hill; And here is your love, That lists where it will.
-
And clenching your fist for the ones like us who are oppressed by the figures of beauty, you fixed yourself, you said, 'Well never mind, we are ugly but we have the music.'
-
And here you are hurried, And here you are gone; And here is the love, That it's all built upon.
-
O you've seen that man before his golden arm dispatching cards but now it's rusted from the elbow to the finger And he wants to trade the game he plays for shelter
-
If you're squeezed for information,that's when you've got to play it dumb:You just say you're out there waitingfor the miracle to come.
-
My friends are gone and My hair is grey. I ache in the places where I used to play. And I'm crazy for love but I'm not coming on. I'm just paying my rent everyday In the Tower Of Song.
-
I finally broke into the prison I found my place in the chain Even damnation is poisoned with rainbows
-
Here I stand, I'm your man.
-
I know there is an eye that watches all of us. There is a judgment that weighs everything we do. And before this great force, which is greater than any government I stand in awe and I kneel in respect and it is to this great judgment that I dedicate this next song, 'Hallelujah'.