I don’t even hate books anymore.
LEONARD COHENI don’t even hate books anymore.
LEONARD COHENDon’t call yourself a secret unless you mean to keep it.
LEONARD COHENPoetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash.
LEONARD COHENBelieve nothing of me except that I felt your beauty more closely than my own.
LEONARD COHENStunned and still not suffering. Swollen with care and anxiety and still not suffering. Useless, old, and full of grief, but still not suffering.
LEONARD COHENMy reputation as a ladies’ man was a joke that caused me to laugh bitterly through the ten thousand nights I spent alone.
LEONARD COHENTo discover the truth in anything that is alien, first dispense with the indispensable in your own vision.
LEONARD COHENEven damnation is poisoned with rainbows.
LEONARD COHENHow can I begin anything new with all of yesterday in me?
LEONARD COHENLove is the only engine of survival.
LEONARD COHENFirst of all, nothing will happen and a little later nothing will happen again.
LEONARD COHENAnd everything depends upon how near you sleep to me.
LEONARD COHENBlessed are you who circled desire with a blade, and the garden with fiery swords, and heaven and earth with a word.
LEONARD COHENI 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 COHENPlease make me empty, if I’m empty then I can receive, if I can receive it means it comes from somewhere outside of me, if it comes from outside of me I’m not alone! I cannot bear this loneliness. Above all it is loneliness.
LEONARD COHENPoetry is a verdict, not an occupation.
LEONARD COHEN