Leonard Cohen

“first of all nothing will happen and a little laternothing will happen again”

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

“And I had not much of a voice. I didn't play that great guitar either.”

“I loved you when you opened like a lily to the heat; you see I’m just another snowman standing in the rain and sleet who loved you with his frozen love, his second hand physique, with all he is and all he was a thousand kisses deep.”

“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.”

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

“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.”

“I've never sold widely enough to be able to relax about money. I had two kids and their mother to support and my own life. So there was never an option of cutting out.”

“I was 15 when I first became deeply touched by the rhythm and structure of words.”

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

“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.”

“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.”

“And most people have a woman in their heart, most men have a woman in their heart and most women have a man in their heart.”

“I always felt I was scraping the bottom of the barrel trying to get a song together.”

“Who could have foretoldthe heart grows oldfrom touching others”

“Songs seem to take me a long time. I don't know why; they're not especially excellent for taking so long.”

“Deprivation is the mother of poetry.”

“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.”

“I was born in a suit.”

“At first first nothing will happen to usand later on it will happen to us again.”