Leonard Cohen Quotes

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

If you want a lover I'll do anything you ask.

If you want a different kind of love I'll wear a mask.

If you want to strike me down in anger here I stand.

If you want a partner in life take my hand.

I'm your man.

They ended every speech with the word hiro, which means: like I said. Thus each man took responsibility for intruding into the inarticulate murmur of the spheres. To hiro they added the word koue, a cry of joy or distress, according to whether it was sung or howled. Thus they essayed to piece the mysterious curtain which hangs between all talking men: at the end of every utterance a man stepped back, so to speak, and attempted to interpret his words to the listener, attempted to subvert the beguiling intellect with the noise of true emotion.

The war was lost
The treaty signed
I was not caught
I crossed the line
I was not caught
Though many tried
I live among you
Well-disguised
I had to leave
My life behind
I dug some graves
You'll never find
The story's told
With facts and lies
I had a name
But never mind
Never mind
Never mind
The war was lost
The treaty signed
There's Truth that lives
And Truth that dies
I don't know which
So never mind
(...السلام و السلام)
Your victory
Was so complete
Some among you
Thought to keep
A record of
Our little lives
The clothes we wore
Our spoons our knives
The games of luck
Our soldiers played
The stones we cut
The songs we made
Our law of peace
Which understands
A husband leads
A wife commands
And all of these
Expressions of the
Sweet indifference
Some called love
The high indifference
Some call fate
But we had names
More intimate
Names so deep
And names so true
They're blood to me
They're dust to you
There is no need
And this survives
There's Truth that lives
And Truth that dies
Never mind
Never mind
I leave the life
I left behind
There's Truth that lives
And Truth that dies
I don't know which
So never mind
(...السلام و السلام)
I could not kill
The way you kill
I could not hate
I tried, I failed
You turned me in
At least you tried
You side with them whom
You despise
This was your heart
This swarm of flies
This was once your mouth
This bowl of lies
You serve them well
I'm not surprised
You're of their kin
You're of their kind
Never mind
Never mind
I had to leave my
Life behind
The story's told
With facts and lies
You own the world
So never mind
Never mind
Never mind
I live the life
I left behind
I live it full
I live it wide
Through layers of time
You can't divide
My woman's here
My children too
Their graves are safe
From ghosts like you
In places deep
With roots entwined
I live the life
I left behind
The war was lost
The treaty signed
I was not caught
Across the line
I was not caught
Though many tried
I live among you
Well-disguised

O God, make me poor enough
to love yurd diamond in the rough,
or in my failure let me see,
my greed raised to mistery.

Do you hate the one who must
turn your world all to dust?
Do you hate the ones who ask
if Creation wears a mask

God beyond the God I name,
if mask and fire are the same,
repair the seam my love leaps through ,
uncreated fire to pursue.

Network of cretated fire,
maim my love and my desire.
Make me poor so I may be,
servant in the world I see

I dreamed about you baby.
It was just the other night.
Most of you was naked
Ah, but some of you was light.

I told the truth, I didn't come to fool you

We're drinking and we're dancing
but there's nothing really happening.
The place is dead as Heaven on a Saturday night.

i would like to remind
the management
that the drinks are watered
and the hat-check girl
has syphilis
and the band is composed
of former ss monsters
However since it is
new year's eve
and i have lip cancer
i will place my
paper hat on my
concussion and dance

Come over to the window, my little darling
I'd like to try to read your palm
I used to think I was some kind of Gypsy boy
Before I let you take me home
Now so long, Marianne, it's time that we began
To laugh and cry and cry and laugh about it all again
Well you know that I love to live with you
But you make me forget so very much
I forget to pray for the angels
And then the angels forget to pray for us

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.

I greet you from the other side of sorrow and despair, with a love so vast and shattered it will reach you everywhere.

My animal howls
My angel's upset
But I'm not allowed
A trace of regret

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

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