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As a young man, Yeats spoke to me in a way I could understand. Shakespeare I couldn't understand, but Yeats I could. It was his subject matter and also I really admired the way he put his personal life on the line.

Leonard Cohen

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Leonard Cohen
Age: 82 †
Born: 1934
Born: September 21
Died: 2016
Died: November 7
Film Actor
Lyricist
Musician
Novelist
Pianist
Poet
Record Producer
Screenwriter
Singer
Singer-Songwriter
Street Artist
Writer
Leonard Norman Cohen
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Life
Lines
Spokes
Understand
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Shakespeare
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Yeats
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More quotes by Leonard Cohen

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I would like to work with Pat [ Leonard] in any capacity. I would love to hear his versions.
Leonard Cohen
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This civil action is another case of a tragedy that has become all too familiar in the music industry: a business manager and professional advisers exploit an immensely talented artist's loyalty and trust through greed, self-dealing, concealment, knowing misrepresentation and reckless disregard for professional fiduciary duties.
Leonard Cohen
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All the lousy little poets coming around trying to sound like Charles Manson.
Leonard Cohen
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Journalists, especially English journalists, were very cruel to me. They said I only knew three chords when I knew five!
Leonard Cohen
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Coroner's inquest: death by drowning. And he hasn't been to the sea-shore in ten years.
Leonard Cohen
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I dreamed about you baby. It was just the other night. Most of you was naked Ah, but some of you was light.
Leonard Cohen
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When you stop thinking about yourself all the time, a certain sense of repose overtakes you.
Leonard Cohen
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He can love the shape of human beings, the fine and twisted shapes of the heart. It is good to have among us such men, such balancing monsters of love.
Leonard Cohen
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Israel, and you who call yourself Israel, the Church that calls itself Israel, and the revolt that calls itself Israel, and every nation chosen to be a nation - none of these lands is yours, all of you are thieves of holiness, all of you at war with Mercy.
Leonard Cohen
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I bargain now. I offer buttons for his love.
Leonard Cohen
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Get ready for the future: it is murder.
Leonard Cohen
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Lift me like an olive branch and be my homeward dove Dance me to the end of love.
Leonard Cohen
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I'm writing all the time. And as the songs begin to coalesce, I'm not doing anything else but writing. I wish I were one of those people who wrote songs quickly. But I'm not. So it takes me a great deal of time to find out what the song is.
Leonard Cohen
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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, for the miracle to come.
Leonard Cohen
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My page was too white My ink was too thin The day wouldn't write What the night pencilled in.
Leonard Cohen
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The fact that my songs take a long time to write is no guarantee of their excellence.
Leonard Cohen
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The less I was of who I was, the better I felt.
Leonard Cohen
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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
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You should go from place to place recovering the poems that have been written for you to which you can affix your signature. Don't discuss these matters with anyone. Retrieve. Retrieve. When the basket is full someone will appear to whom you can present it.
Leonard Cohen
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I can't run no more with that lawless crowd while the killers in high places say their prayers out loud. But they've summoned, they've summoned up a thundercloud and they're going to hear from me. Ring the bells that still can ring Forget your perfect offering There is a crack in everything That's how the light gets in.
Leonard Cohen