Leonard Cohen Quotes

Veiling truth in mystery.

I spend a substantial amount of my time endeavoring to fend off questions, and worry terribly that I might end up being too clear.

If that comes up, I'll just confuse them.

If I give you a hint and tell you it's a hint, it will be information.

Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night.

The more you play it the less you know about it.

Ambiguity — the Devil's volleyball.

I don’t think you’re supposed to be able to get at that information,” said Leslie. “Don’t look,” said Goldstein, peering over Charles’s shoulder. “We don’t know anything about illegal hacking.” He whistled cheerily.

At the moment, I'm certainly not thinking 'never again', but neither am I thinking 'I can't wait to play that part again'. I'm somewhere in between.

Murky language means someone wants to pick your pocket.

They found out about him in July and stayed angry all through August. They tried to kill him in September. It was way too soon. They weren't ready. The attempt was a failure. It could have been a disaster, but it was actually a miracle. Because nobody noticed.

The advantage of wisdom is that you can play dumb. The opposite is more difficult.

Where do you live?" Adam's mouth was very set. "A place made for leaving" "That's not really an answer." "It's not really a place.

Sylvia loved secrets and even if she didn't have any secrets she made sure that you thought she did. Amelia had no secrets, Amelia knew nothing. When she grew up she planned to know everything and to keep it all a secret.

You two are a strange pair. You are a pair, aren't you?" "We're in training.

The real secret about diplomats is that we're trained to say something, when there is nothing to say, and to say nothing when there is something to say.

The fact is, the Time Traveller was one of those men who are too clever to be believed: you never felt that you saw all round him; you always suspected some subtle reserve, some ingenuity in ambush, behind his lucid frankness.

Glamour is translucent — not transparent, not opaque. It invites us into the world but it doesn’t give us a completely clear picture.

Art is not only the desire to tell one's secret; it is the desire to tell it and hide it at the same time.

It was easy to cover up ignorance by the mystical word "intuition.

Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand?

I obviously do everything to be "hard to understand" myself

People are much less interested in what you are trying to show them than what you are trying to hide.

Don't tell them too much about your soul. They're waiting for just that.

Anything I tell you is an alibi for something else." Then let's be quiet together.