Certainly 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 CohenHis vision was just outstanding. If you think of him in the same way as Pele then you would come close.
Leonard CohenI see people allowing their lives to diminish, to become shallow, so they can't enjoy the deep wells of experience. Maybe it's always been this way, when the heart tends to shut down. If only the heart shut down and there were no repercussions, it would be O.K., but when the heart shuts down, the whole system goes into a kind of despair that is intolerable.
Leonard CohenI 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 Cohen