Leonard Cohen Quotes

Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That's how it goes
Everybody knows

If you're squeezed for information,
that's when you've got to play it dumb:
You just say you're out there waiting
for the miracle to come.

THERE FOR YOU

When it all went down
And the pain came through
I get it now
I was there for you

Don’t ask me how
I know it’s true
I get it now
I was there for you

I make my plans
Like I always do
But when I look back
I was there for you

I walk the streets
Like I used to do
And I freeze with fear
But I’m there for you

I see my life
In full review
It was never me
It was always you

You sent me here
You sent me there
Breaking things
I can’t repair

Making objects
Out of thoughts
making more
By thinking not

Eating food
And drinking wine
A body that
I thought was mine

Dressed as Arab
Dressed as Jew
O mask of iron
I was there for you

Moods of glory
Moods so foul
The world comes through
A bloody towel

And death is old
But it’s always new
I freeze with fear
And I’m there for you

I see it clear
I always knew
It was never me
I was there for you

I was there for you
My darling one
And by your law
It all was done

Don’t ask me how
I know it’s true
I get it now
I was there for you

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.

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 need your hidden love,
I’m cold as a new razor blade.
You left when I told you I was curious…
I never said that I was brave.

from “So Long Marianne

Slowly I married her. Slowly and bitterly married her love / married her body in boredom and joy. Slowly I came to her bed and came to her table in hunger and habit came to be fed. Slowly I married her sanctioned by none with nobody's name / amid general warnings / amid general scorn. Came to her fragrance by nostrils wide. Came to her greed with seed for a child. Years in the coming and years in retreat / slowly I married her / slowly I kneeled and now we are wounded so deep and so well that no one can hurt us except Death itself.

I am not the one who loved, it's love that chooses me.
When hatred with it's package comes, you forbid delivery.

Reality is one of the possibilities I cannot afford to ignore

I am not the one
you are looking for.
You are not the one
I’ve stopped looking for.

I come from a country where we do not have the same struggles as you have. I respect your struggles. And it may surprise you, but I respect both sides of this struggle. It seems to be that in Europe there needs to be a left foot and a right foot to move forward. I wish that both feet move forward and the body moves towards its proper destiny. This is an intense country; the people are heroic, the spirit is independent. It is a difficult country to govern, it needs a strong government and a strong union. … I would like to say to you, to the leaders of the left, and the leaders of the right, I sing... I sing for everyone. My song has no flag, my song has no party. And I say the prayer, that we said in our synagogue, I say it for the leader of your union and the leader of your party. May the Lord put a spirit, a wisdom and understanding into the hearts of your leaders and into the hearts of all their counsellors.

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

It is fabled that we slowly lose the gift of speech with animals, that birds no longer visit our windowsills to converse. As our eyes grow accustomed to sight they armor themselves against wonder. — Leonard Cohen, The Favorite Game. (Vintage; Reprint edition October 14, 2003) Originally published January 1st 1963.

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

Please understand, I never had a secret chart to get me to the heart of this or any other matter. When he talks like this you don't know what he's after.