Book of Longing Quotes

“BODY OF LONELINESS

She entered my foot with her foot
and she entered my waist with her snow.
She entered my heart saying,
“Yes, that’s right.”
And so the Body of Loneliness
was covered from without,
and from within
the Body of Loneliness was embraced.
Now every time I try to draw a breath
she whispers to my breathlessness,
“Yes, my love, that’s right, that’s right.”
― Leonard Cohen, Book of Longing

“To a Young Nun

This undemanding love
that our staggered births
have purchased for us —
You in your generation,
I in mine.
I am not the one
you are looking for.
You are not the one
I've stopped looking for.
How sweetly time
disposes of us
as we go arm in arm
over the Bridge of Details:
Your turn to chop.
My turn to cook.
Your turn to die for love.
My turn to resurrect.”
― Leonard Cohen, Book of Longing

“I am not the one
you are looking for.
You are not the one
I’ve stopped looking for.”
― Leonard Cohen, Book of Longing

“Come gather the pieces all scattered and lost
The lie in what's holy, the light in what's not
The story's been written the letter's been sealed
You gave me a lily but now it's a field”
― Leonard Cohen, Book of Longing

“I am this thing that needs to sing.”
― Leonard Cohen, Book of Longing

“When my heart is broken as usual
over someone's evanescent beauty
and design after design
they fade like kingdoms with no writing”
― Leonard Cohen, Book of Longing

“need to see
I never saw
your need for me
your longing raw”
― Leonard Cohen, Book of Longing

“And when the hunger for your touch
Rises from the hunger,
You whisper, "You have loved enough,
Now let me me the Lover.”
― Leonard Cohen, Book of Longing

“Whoever is in your life,
those who harm you,
those who help you;
those whom you know
and those whom you do not know –
let them off the hook,
help them off the hook.
Recognize the hook.”
― Leonard Cohen, Book of Longing

“The truth of the line overwhelms all other considerations" 1/24/03”
― Leonard Cohen, Book of Longing

“only one thing
made him happy
and now that
it was gone
everything
made him happy”
― Leonard Cohen, Book of Longing

“My reputation
as a Ladies’ Man was a joke
It caused me to laugh bitterly
through the ten thousand nights
I spent alone
From a third-storey window
above the Parc du Portugal
I’ve watched the snow
come down all day
As usual
there’s no one here
There never is”
― Leonard Cohen, Book of Longing

“I was looking through my dreams
when I saw myself
looking through my dreams
looking through my dreams
and so on and so forth
until I was consumed
in the mysterous activity
of expansion and contraction
breathing in and out at the same time
and disappearing naturally
up my own asshole
i did this for 30 years
but I kept coming back
to let you know how bad it felt
Now I'm here at the end of the song
the end fo the prayer
The ashes have fallen away at last
exactly as they're supposed to do
The chains have slowly
followed the anchors
to the bottom of the sea
It's merely a song
merely a prayer
Thank you, Teachers
Thank you, Everyone”
― Leonard Cohen, Book of Longing

“I sailed like a swan
I sank like a rock
But time is long gone
Past my laughing stock”
― Leonard Cohen, Book of Longing