Top 47 Quotes by Leonard Cohen

I never really liked poetry readings; I liked to read poetry by myself, but I liked singing, chanting my lyrics to this jazz group.

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.

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

We used to play music for fun. Much more than now. Now nobody picks up a guitar unless they're paid for it.

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

There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in.

Children show scars like medals. Lovers use them as secrets to reveal. A scar is what happens when the word is made flesh.

Well, for one thing, in the tradition of Zen that I've practiced, there is no prayerful worship and there is no affirmation of a deity.

If I knew where the good songs came from, I'd go there more often.

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.