“There's always a group of songs that I'm working at. Some of them are 10 years old, and some of them are just a few weeks old. I'm always trying to adjust these songs to some position where I can bring them to completion.”

Canadian songwriter, singer, poet, and novelist

Leonard Cohen was a Canadian songwriter, singer, poet, and novelist. He is known for work that moves between song and literature, and for a career that made him a major figure in Canadian and international music. His writing and songs often explore faith and mortality, isolation and depression, betrayal and redemption, as well as love, desire, regret, loss, and social and political conflict. He was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and was invested as a Companion of the Order of Canada. In 2011, he received a Prince of Asturias Award for literature and the ninth Glenn Gould Prize.