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Leonard Cohen Quotes

Browse 9 quotes about Leonard Cohen.

Leonard Cohen Quotes

“I ran across an excerpt today (in English translation) of some dialogue/narration from the modern popular writer, Paulo Coelho in his book: Aleph.(Note: bracketed text is mine.)... 'I spoke to three scholars,' [the character says 'at last.'] ...two of them said that, after death, the [sic (misprint, fault of the publisher)] just go to Paradise. The third one, though, told me to consult some verses from the Koran. [end quote]' ...I can see that he's excited. [narrator]' ...Now I have many positive things to say about Coelho: He is respectable, inspiring as a man, a truth-seeker, and an appealing writer; but one should hesitate to call him a 'literary' writer based on this quote. A 'literary' author knows that a character's excitement should be 'shown' in his or her dialogue and not in the narrator's commentary on it. Advice for Coelho: Remove the 'I can see that he's excited' sentence and show his excitement in the phrasing of his quote.(Now, in defense of Coelho, I am firmly of the opinion, having myself written plenty of prose that is flawed, that a novelist should be forgiven for slipping here and there.)Lastly, it appears that a belief in reincarnation is of great interest to Mr. Coelho ... Just think! He is a man who has achieved, (as Leonard Cohen would call it), 'a remote human possibility.' He has won lots of fame and tons of money. And yet, how his preoccupation with reincarnation—none other than an interest in being born again as somebody else—suggests that he is not happy!”

LifeWritingInspirationTruthHappinessInspiringEducationInspirational LifeBirthFameInspirational AttitudeFortuneFaultsIslamEducationalHappyDialogueExcitementParadiseIslamicLife And DeathImperfectionInspiring QuotesPublishingReincarnationGrammarWriting AdviceCritiqueNovelsBorn AgainLiterature QuotesAuthorshipFamous AuthorsIslamic QuotesRomanLiterary CriticismHuman PotentialWriting CraftCraftsmanshipCharacterizationCraftRoman PayneWriting From The HeartNovelistNarrationHappiness Positive OutlookPaulo CoelhoPayneLiterary TheoryFame And FortuneAdvice For WritersKoranHumanenessSentence StructureCoelhoLeonard CohenAlephArt Of LiteraturePhrasingCohenWriting ArtWriting As A ProfessionCritique Of ModernityGrammaticalWriting And Art
Author:Roman Payne
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“I love Leonard Cohen, but he's not the guy you want on in the background when you're working or whatever." "Brilliant. I've studied his poetry, of course, but never heard him sing." "My mom loved him. She had a taste for dark themes, sad music- all that regret, you know- and Cohen has this great, deep voice, rumbly, raw, but it's the words that make his songs. He was such an old, old soul, especially about relationships.”

DarkMusicPoetSadSingerLeonard Cohen
Book:The Art of Inheriting Secrets
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“Needless to say, the song ["Hallelujah"] was now a climax in every show [of the 2009 Leonard Cohen tour], received like holy scripture. It belonged in a category with seeing Bob Dylan sing "Like a Rolling Stone" or watching Bruce Springsteen perform "Born to Run"—it was an event that people simply wanted to witness, to say they had seen. It took on a power that had to do with the song's history first, its feeling second, and its details hardly at all. Every performance carried with it a sense of where this song had been, who had sung it,where and how every listener had first encountered it; it had reached a place where it was something to be experienced, rather than listened to.”

Hallelujah2012Bob Dylan2009Bruce SpringsteenLeonard CohenMagnum Opus Quotes
Book:The Holy or the Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley, and the Unlikely Ascent of "Hallelujah"
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“Though most cultural observers hadn't noticed it yet, everything was now in place for "Hallelujah" to sweep through the pop landscape. It was a song that had multiple strong, emotional connections with millions of listeners. Its mood was both fixed and malleable, universal and specific. It was familiar enough to resonate, obscure enough to remain cool. Though its most celebrated performer was gone forever, its mysterious creator had come back to the spotlight just in time. After 2001, whether it signified an individual's solitude (human or monster or otherwise) or a population in mourning, "Hallelujah"—now far removed from Leonard Cohen's initial," rather joyous" intent—was established as the definitive representation of sadness for a new generation.”

Pop MusicHallelujah9 1120122001Leonard CohenTouchstoneJeff Buckley
Book:The Holy or the Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley, and the Unlikely Ascent of "Hallelujah"
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“It's funny, I've decided 'Hallelujah' is a kind of Rorschach test for people, because everyone has a different reaction to it and to what I'm doing. I just sang it, and whatever came out was just natural and spontaneous and maybe that's the best thing, because there's a kind of enigma, both in the meaning of the words and the way Leonard Cohen said them, that catches people's attention.”

Pop MusicHallelujah2012Leonard CohenDark Hope
Book:The Holy or the Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley, and the Unlikely Ascent of "Hallelujah"
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