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" Any startling piece of work has a subversive element in it, a delicious element often. Subversion is only disagreeable when it manifests in political or social activity. "

Leonard Cohen

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" My reputation as a ladies' man was a joke. It caused me to laugh bitterly through the 10,000 nights I spent alone. "

" 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. "

" My mind was always very cluttered, so I took great pains to simplify my environment, because if my environment were half as cluttered as my mind, I wouldn't be able to make it from room to room. "

" I can work on a verse for a very long time before realising it's not any good and then, and only then, can I discard it. "

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

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

" At a certain point, if you still have your marbles and are not faced with serious financial challenges, you have a chance to put your house in order. It's a cliche, but it's underestimated as an analgesic on all levels. Putting your house in order, if you can do it, is one of the most comforting activities, and the benefits of it are incalculable. "

" Some people care about their work lasting forever - I have little interest in it. "

" I always considered myself a minor writer. My province is small, and I try to explore it very, very thoroughly. "

" I've always been into self-dramatization. I intend to live forever. "

" I 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. "

" I have a deep tribal sense. I grew up in a synagogue that my ancestors built. I sat in the third row. My family was decent. They were good people; they were handshake people. So I never had a sense of rebellion. "

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

" I've got beautiful reviews for all my books, and I'm very well thought of in the tiny circles that know me, but I'm really starving. "

Leonard Cohen

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

" You can keep the body as well-oiled and receptive as possible, but whether you're actually going to be able to go for the long haul is really not your own choice. "

" 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. "

" 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 don't think you can write novels on the road. You need a certain stability. "

" My two great heroes are W. B. Yeats and Federico García Lorca. "

" We're in a world where there's famine and hunger and people are dodging bullets and having their nails pulled out in dungeons so it's very hard for me to place any high value on the work that I do to write a song. Yeah, I work hard but compared to what? "

" We're always experiencing joy or sadness. But there are lots of people who've closed down. And there are times in one's life when one has to close down just to regroup. "

" The basic function of popular music is to create an environment for courting, lovemaking, and doing the dishes. It's useful because it addresses the heart in the midst of all these activities, and it will always be useful in this very important way. "

" This is the most challenging activity that humans get into, which is love. You know, where we have the sense that we can't live without love. That life has very little meaning without love. "

" I think that Bob Dylan knows this more than all of us: you don't write the songs anyhow. So if you're lucky, you can keep the vehicle healthy and responsive over the years. If you're lucky, your own intentions have very little to do with this. "

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

" The fact that my songs take a long time to write is no guarantee of their excellence. "

" I can make a couple of good sandwiches: tuna salad and chopped egg salad. And Greek bean soup. I was a cook for my old Zen master for many years. So there were two or three dishes that he liked, you know. Teriyaki salmon, a few things. "

" I read with some amusement my reputation as a ladies' man. My friends are amused by that, too, because they know my life. "

" 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. "