Misattributed Leonard Cohen Quotes

We are all broken - that's how the light gets in. ~ Ernest Hemingway,

Well it's true, ever since I stopped eating meat I feel a lot better among animals, I feel I can be much more honest when I pat a dog. ~ Leonard Cohen

When I was filming the Marilyn Monroe movie, I was listening to a lot of Leonard Cohen. ~ Michelle Williams

Rejection hurts so much because we take it as a damning judgement passed not merely on our physical appeal but on our entire selves, and by extension (at this stage we're crying into our pillow, as something by Bach or Leonard Cohen plays on the stereo) on our very right to exist. 2. ~ Alain De Botton

You who wish to conquer pain, you must learn what makes one kind. ~ Leonard Cohen

You who build these altars now to sacrifice these children , you must not do it anymore. A scheme is not a vision and you never have been tempted by a demon or a god . ~ Leonard Cohen

Well I see you there with the rose in your teeth
One more thin gypsy thief
Yes, and thanks, for the trouble you took from her eyes
I thought it was there for good so I never tried.
And Jane came by with a lock of your hair
She said that you gave it to her
That night that you planned to go clear ~ Leonard Cohen

There is a religious hallelujah, but there are many other ones[ ... ] When one looks at the world, there's only one thing to say, and it's hallelujah. That's the way it is. ~ Leonard Cohen

Coroner's inquest: death by drowning. And he hasn't been to the sea-shore in ten years. ~ Leonard Cohen

I walk through the old yellow sunlight
to get to my kitchen table
the poem about me
lying there with the books
in which I am listed
among the dead and future Dylans ~ Leonard Cohen

If the Enchanted Forest were in a movie, they'd always be playing Bob Dylan or Van Morrison or maybe even Leonard Cohen in the background. Greta thought about that a lot. Sometimes when she was taking a shower or helping her mom in the restaurant, she'd imagine what kind of scene it would be and what would be playing to set the mood. ~ Emma Straub

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. ~ Leonard Cohen

I'm planning a catastrophe. ~ Leonard Cohen

From bitter searching of the heart,
quickened with passion and with pain
we rise
to play a greater part
this is the faith from which we start. ~ Leonard Cohen

Your body will never be familiar. ~ Leonard Cohen

I speak of a clinical depression that is the background of your entire life, a background of anguish and anxiety, a sense that nothing goes well, that pleasure is unavailable and all your strategies collapse. ~ Leonard Cohen

And what can I tell you, my brother, my killer, what can I possibly say? I guess that I miss you, I guess I forgive you, I'm glad you stood in my way ~ Leonard Cohen

It's four in the morning, the end of december
I'm writing you now just to see if you're better. ~ Leonard Cohen

There is evidence that the honoree [Leonard Cohen] might be privy to the secret of the universe, which, in case you're wondering, is simply this: Everything is connected. Everything. Many, if not most, of the links are difficult to determine. The instrument, the apparatus, the focused ray that can uncover and illuminate those connections is language. ~ Tom Robbins

Sexuality is general, and although only one man may be receiving the favors of a woman, all men in her presence are warm. That's the great generosity of women and the great generosity of the creator who worked it out that way, that there are no unilateral agreements of sexuality. ~ Leonard Cohen

Friend, when you speak this carefully I know it is because you don't know what to say. ~ Leonard Cohen

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. ~ Leonard Cohen

When I have not rage or sorrow, and you depart from me, then I am most afraid. When the belly is full, and the mind has its sayings, then I fear for my soul; I rush to you as a child at night breaks into its parents' room. Do not forget me in my satisfaction. When the heart grins at itself, the world is destroyed. And I am found alone with the husks and the shells. Then the dangerous moment comes: I am too great to ask for help. I have other hopes. I legislate from the fortress of my disappointments, with a set jaw. Overthrow this even terror with a sweet remembrance: when I was with you, when my soul delighted you, when I was what you wanted. My heart sings of your longing for me, and my thoughts climb down to marvel at your mercy. I do not fear as you gather up my days. Your name is the sweetness of time, and you carry me close into the night, speaking consolations, drawing down lights from the sky, saying, See how the night has no terror for one who remembers the Name. ~ Leonard Cohen

it's closing time ~ Leonard Cohen

We've got to learn to love appearances. ~ Leonard Cohen

Your faith was strong, but you needed proof... ~ Leonard Cohen

May everyone live, And may everyone die. Hello, my love, And my love, Goodbye. ~ Leonard Cohen

Rust rust rust in the engines of love and time ~ Leonard Cohen

We are not mad. We are human.We want to love, and someone must forgive us for the paths we take to love, for the paths are many and dark, and we are ardent and cruel in our journey. ~ Leonard Cohen

My abandoned narcotics have abandoned me. ~ Leonard Cohen

The silver knives are flashing in that tired old cafe ... ~ Leonard Cohen

I usually listen to the same thing over and over again: Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto in D Major. And Leonard Cohen. ~ Sue Townsend

Marita,
Please find me,
I am almost 30 ~ Leonard Cohen

You know, Leonard Cohen is amazing, just a mastermind, and really one of the great geniuses of our time. ~ Jake Shimabukuro

I love Tom [Waits] for the same reason I love Leonard Cohen, which is that they are both one-offs, templates; they both seemed old, or at least dressed old when they were young; both kind of lived their careers backwards. ~ Sylvie Simmons

There are always meaningful songs for somebody. People are doing their courting, people are finding their wives, people are making babies, people are washing their dishes, people are getting through the day, with songs that we may find insignificant. But their significance is affirmed by others. There's always someone affirming the significance of a song by taking a woman into his arms or by getting through the night. That's what dignifies the song. Songs don't dignify human activity. Human activity dignifies the song. ~ Leonard Cohen

The winter has not killed usagain! ~ Leonard Cohen

The poor stay poor, the rich get rich / Thats how it goes / Everybody knows. ~ Leonard Cohen

No penance serves to renew them, no massive transfusions of trust. Why not even revenge can undo them, so twisted these vows and so crushed. ~ Leonard Cohen

A rat is more alive than a turtle.
A turtle is slow, cold, mechanical, nearly a toy, a shell with legs. Their deaths didn't count. But a white rat is quick and warm in its envelope of skin ~ Leonard Cohen

Love me this first day of June.
I'd rather sleep with ashes than priestly wisdom.
Of all the lonely places in the world this is best where debris is human.
I kiss the precious ashes that fall from fiery flesh.
On these familiar shapes I lay my kisses down. ~ Leonard Cohen

I couldn't feel so I learned to touch. ~ Leonard Cohen

I started as a songwriter and wanted to be like Leonard Cohen. I've always seen my stories as enlarged songs. ~ Kazuo Ishiguro

Raise a million filters and the rain will not be clean, until the longing for it be refined in deep confession. ~ Leonard Cohen

Each day he lugged
a hunk of something precious
over to his boredom
and once or twice a week
when he was granted
the tiny grace of distance
he perceived that he laboured
as his fathers did
on someone else's pyramid
Thoughts of rebellion
Thoughts of injustice
New Year's resolutions
The seduction of a woman
All these he engraved
numbly letter by letter
Walther PPK-S
Serial No. 115142
stolen from one slave by another ~ Leonard Cohen

Oh the sisters of mercy, they are not departed or gone. ~ Leonard Cohen