I feel that, you know, the enormous luck I've had in being able to make a living, and to never have had to have written one word that I didn't want to write, to be able to have satisfied that dictum I set for myself, which was not to work for pay, but to be paid for my work - just to be able to satisfy those standards that I set for myself has been an enormous privilege.
Leonard CohenCertainly within any decadent period, you would probably find the purest expressions of conviction, and I do not see that in many of the people I know.
Leonard CohenNo 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