The following abbreviations have been used for frequently cited titles; initials followed by date indicates an interview.
Books
|
BaL |
Ballet of Lepers |
|
BCQ |
Beauty at Close Quarters |
|
BL |
Beautiful Losers |
|
BM |
Book of Mercy |
|
DLM |
Death of A Lady’s Man |
|
ES |
The Energy of Slaves |
|
FG |
The Favorite Game |
|
FH |
Flowers for Hitler |
|
FR |
The Final Revision of My Life in Art |
|
LCM |
Let Us Compare Mythologies |
|
PH |
Parasites of Heaven |
|
SBE |
The Spice-Box of Earth |
|
SM |
Stranger Music |
|
SP |
Selected Poems, 1956–1968 |
Albums
|
BLC |
Best of Leonard Cohen |
|
CL |
Cohen Live |
|
DLSM |
Death of a Ladies’ Man |
|
IYM |
I’m Your Man |
|
LS |
Live Songs |
|
NS |
New Skin for the Old Ceremony |
|
RS |
Recent Songs |
|
SFR |
Songs From A Room |
|
SLC |
Songs of Leonard Cohen |
|
SLH |
Songs of Love and Hate |
|
TF |
The Future |
|
TS |
Tower of Song |
|
VP |
Various Positions |
Archives and Sources
|
C |
Columbia University |
|
McM |
McClelland & Stewart Archive, McMaster University |
|
NYT |
New York Times |
|
UT |
Leonard Cohen collection, Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO |
|
LCA |
Leonard Cohen Archive |
Introduction
1 “tolerated”: LC 11/14/94
2 “part wolf and part angel”: Anjelica Huston, “Leonard Cohen,” Interview (November 1995) 90.
3 “the grocer of despair”: “Field Commander Cohen,” NS; also, Steve Lake, “The Grocer of Despair,” Münchner Stadt Zeitung 14 (1987) 28–29.
4 “poet laureate of pessimism”: Richard Guilliatt, “At Times his Life Has Been Dark,” Sunday Times (12 December 1993) 62.
5 “the prince of bummers”: Leon Wieseltier, “The Prince of Bummers,” New Yorker (26 July 1993) 41.
6 “music to slit your wrists by”: Nancy Southam, “A Flash of Genius,” Toronto Star (20 August 1988) 10.
7 “Thank God Sylvia Plath”: “Love Me, Love My Gun Barrel,” New Musical Express (23 February 1980) 24
8 “moody amorousness”: Elysa Gardner, “Leonard Cohen,” Rolling Stone (5 August 1993) 28.
9 “There is a confusion”: “Love Me, Love My Gun Barrel,” New Musical Express (23 February 1980) 24.
10 “In punishment”: On the Genealogy of Morals, tr. Walter Kaufmann and R.J. Hollingdale (NY: Vintage Books, 1967) 67.
11 “A Zen Man”: Joshu Sasaki Roshi in Steve Sanfield, “The Inner Passage,” Zen and Hasidism, compiled by Harold Heifetz (Wheaton, Ill.: Theosophical Publishing House, 1978) 229.
12 “I am formal”: Leonard Cohen to Vince Scelsa, “Idiot’s Delight,” WXRK-FM (NYC) 6/13/93.
13 “I have to do a lot”: LC to VS 6/13/93.
14 “at the very center”: LC 4/20/95.
15 “just the Beacon”: LC 4/20/95
16 “the thing you place”: LC 4/20/95.
17 “Keeping things”: LC 4/20/95
18 “what I admire”: BCQ 349
19 “I like to include”: LC to Peter Gzowski, CBC Radio 11/18/92
20 “Each book”: The Gateway [University of Alberta] (2 December 1966) C4.
21 “has led me”: LC 5/10/94
22 “I want no attachments”: BCQ 354
23 “Far from flying”: BL 95–96
Chapter 1
1 “deprivation is the mother”: FG 26
2 “What was it like”: FG 24
3 “His father’s death”: FG 24
4 “what happens when”: FG 3
5 “I’ve been digging”: People 13 (14 January 1980) 55.
6 “nourished all the sleepers”: FG 68
7 “heroic landscapes”: FG 68.
8 “all the English reticence”: FG 21–22
9 “My son, Leonard”: EC 10/23/94
10 “Let him go on”: BCQ 29
11 “the persecuted brother”: FG 22
12 “He died ripe for”: BCQ 36
13 “most dreamy spiritual influence”: People 13 (14 January 1980) 56.
14 “had the flair”: RVZ 7/19/94
15 “past that happened somewhere else”: PG 124–5
16 “He’d read it again”: Michael Benazon, “Leonard Cohen of Montreal” [interview], Matrix 23 (Fall 1986) 52.
17 “He swam in it”: LC 12/29/94
18 “because I wanted”: Matrix 52
19 “Religion structured”: LC in Christian Fevret, “Comme un Guerrier, An Interview with Leonard Cohen,” Throat Culture #3 (1992) 22. (The interview originally appeared in the French magazine Les Inrockuptibles.)
20 “a fat man”: BCQ 31
21 “walked ahead”: BCQ 32
22 “part Catholic”: Mark Rowland, “Leonard Cohen’s Nervous Breakthrough,” Musician Magazine (July 1988) 106.
23 “Christianity”: Rowland, Musician Magazine 106.
24 “would continue the story”: BCQ 27
25 “there was repression”: LC in L.S. Dorman and C.L. Rawlins, Leonard Cohen, Prophet of the Heart (London: Omnibus, 1990) 27–28.
26 “huge .38”: FG 15
27 “I loved the magic”: BL 163
28 “the gun proved”: FG 16
29 “I didn’t feel”: “Comme un Guerrier” 22
30 “No one looks”: UT Notebook
31 “always left on one”: LC in Dorman 49
32 “my uncle Horace”: Matrix 51
33 “I knew how to address”: Matrix 51
34 “professionals in suffering”: LC in Dorman 362
35 “World famous orator”: Westmount High School Yearbook (1951) 23.
36 “swam in a Jewish world”: LC 12/29/94
37 “to go into a system”: Matrix 53
38 “he wanted to touch”: BCQ 214
39 “there [was] some tangent”: BCQ 57
40 “calling on his dead father”: BCQ 357
41 “a history of injustices”: BCQ 357
42 “a ferocious instrument”: BBC Radio 7/8/94
43 “I’m a lot better”: BBC Radio 7/8/94
44 “led me into the racket”: LC in Toronto Star (18 October 1986) G3.
45 “Through the Arch”: Lorca, Collected Poems, ed. Christopher Maurer (NY: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1991) 681.
46 “Am I to blame”: Lorca, Collected Poems xxv.
47 “I was sitting down”: LC in Michael Harris,” Leonard Cohen: The Poet as Hero: 2,” Saturday Night (June 1969) 30.
48 “I wanted them”: LC in Susan Lumsden, “Leonard Cohen Wants the Unconditional Leadership of the World,” Weekend Magazine (12 September 1970) 25.
49 “It is my domain”: “Murray Park at 3 a.m.,” UT.
50 “in stone plazas”: “Murray Park,” UT.
51 “You [an early love] brought”: “Murray Park, UT.
52 “to think of themselves”: BCQ 87
53 “homemade songs of protest”: People’s Song Book (1948; NY: People’s Artists, 1956) 6.
54 “developed a curious notion”: “The Partisan,” Album Notes, BLC (1975).
55 “Through my interest”: LC, National Public Radio, 5/1/1985
56 “There were no cries for help”: LC in “Comme un Guerrier,” Throat Culture 37.
57 “especially beautiful thighs”: “Fragments of Prose, 1952–56,” UT
58 “She moved with”: “Prose, 1952–56,” UT
59 “A smothering sense”: “Prose, 1952–56,” UT
60 “has something to do with”: “Prose, 1952–56,” UT
61 “I have never loved”: “Prose, 1952–56” UT
62 “I have never thought”: “Prose, 1952–56” UT
63 “love generally”: “Prose, 1953–56,” UT
64 “life was purely”: LC, “Comme un Guerrier,” Throat Culture 37.
65 “I nursed you”: Freda Guttman 8/11/94
66 “always feeling like”: Nancy Bacal 2/18/94
67 “He seemed”: FG 8/11/94
68 “contain and survive”: NB 2/18/94
Chapter 2
1 “If you did things right”: NB 2/18/94
2 “paying off old debts”: LC in Harris, “LC: The Poet as Hero: 2,” Saturday Night 27.
3 “limitless space”: NB 2/18/94
4 “ineffectual shower curtains”: LC, “Nomination Speech,” LCA.
5 “My colleague has promised you”: LC, “Address” (February 1956), UT.
6 “CIV/n: not a one-man job”: Pound in a letter cited by Louis Dudek in “Louis Dudek,” Contemporary Authors Autobiography Series 14 (1991): 132; also see Louis Dudek, “Black Mountain Contact, CIV/n Tish, A Memoir,” Sagetrieb 7 (Spring 1988) 42.
7 “a vital”: “Canadian Culture,” CIV/n, A Literary Magazine of the 50’s, ed. Aileen Collins (Montreal: Vehicule Press, 1983) 129.
8 “forced to write”: CIV/n: 129
9 “For Kulchur’s sake”: CIV/n: 129
10 “Last night”: IL in Elspeth Cameron, Irving Layton (Toronto: Stoddart, 1985) 204.
11 “standing for maximum awareness”: Ezra Pound to Louis Dudek in Dk/ Some Letters of Ezra Pound, ed. Louis Dudek (Montreal: DC Books, 1974) 102.
12 “Leonard N. Cohen”: CIV/n: 126.
13 “secret undulations”: CIV/n: 112.
14 “swarmed the shadows”: CIV/n: 112.
15 “savage integrity”: LC to Vin Scelsa, “Idiot’s Delight,” 6/13/93.
16 “voluntarily studying”: Phyllis Webb, “Tibetan Desire,” Take This Waltz, A Celebration of Leonard Cohen, ed. Michael Fournier and Ken Norris (St. Anne de Bellevue, Quebec: The Muses’ Company, 1994) 183.
17 “got battered about”: Webb, Take this Waltz: 184.
18 “That’s where my life”: LC in Matrix 54.
19 “the more restrained”: LC in Matrix 54.
20 “warm and wonderful”: LC in Sandra Djwa, The Politics of the Imagination: A Life of F.R. Scott (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1987) 288.
21 “What race will read”: Irving Layton, “Prologue to the Long Pea-Shooter,” CIV/n: 187.
22 “One can get tired”: Northrop Frye, “Letters in Canada: 1951,” University of Toronto Quarterly 21 (1952): 255.
23 “with a happy / screech”: LC, “For My Old Layton,” FH 37.
24 “I taught him”: LC in Dorman 57.
25 “always seemed to leave”: Don Owen, “Leonard Cohen: The Poet as Hero: 3,” Saturday Night (June 1969) 31.
26 “poised on a rope”: IL, “Foreword,” The Tightrope Dancer (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1978) 9.
27 “in a car full of women”: Doug Jones in Djwa, The Politics of the Imagination: A Life of F.R. Scott 280.
28 “You have discovered”: McGill Yearbook (1955)
29 “I yearned to live”: LC in Paul Williams, “The Romantic in a Ragpicker’s Trade,” Crawdaddy (March 1975) 54.
30 “He knew”: BCQ 198
31 “slow and reluctant”: LD letter to author 7/20/93.
32 “the sentimental late-romantic”: LD letter to author 7/20/93.
33 “To Louis Dudek”: LD’s copy of LCM; cited with permission.
34 “Leonard always had”: LD in Dorman 55.
35 “I was fortunate to see him”: LD address, McGill Convocation “But Leonard”: LD address, McGill Convocation 6/16/92.
36 “He has won through”: LD, “Address,” McGill Convocation 6/16/92.
37 “I want to continue”: “Prose Fragments, 1952–1956”(27 December 1956) UT.
38 “I know all about”: “Prose Fragments” (27 December 1956) UT.
39 “strive for folk-song”: “Prose Fragments” (27 December 1956) UT.
40 “The moon dangling”: LCM 54.
41 “It’s been downhill”: LC in Michael Freeman, “Leonard Cohen,” Venue (Winter 1994) 58.
42 “Mostly what I was”: LC in Freeman, “Leonard Cohen,” Venue (Winter 1994) 59
43 “Breasts, in my mind”: Untitled [“I thought I’d seen a lot of things,”] “Prose Fragments, 1952–56,” [1] UT.
44 “Women who have popularity”: “Prose Fragments” [1] UT.
45 “Layton would at once”: “Prose Fragments” [2] UT.
46 “dark southern slope”: “Prose Fragments” [2] UT.
47 “And at that moment”: “Prose Fragments” [3] UT.
48 “I am change”: LC 10/24/95.
49 “Our song led us to the ovens”: LC 10/24/95.
50 “The nightmares”: PH 13.
51 “I merely step”: PH 13.
52 “In principle”: LC, Black Notebook (March 1967), TCA.
53 “which is famous”: LC, 1981 Luberon Journal, TCA.
54 “My personality”: LC in “Newsletter,” Leonard Cohen Information Service 1 (16 December 1984) 1.
Chapter 3
1 “passion without fiesh”: “Swings Jocko,” SBE 24.
2 “love with no climax”: “Swings Jocko,” SBE 24.
3 “I feel lonely”: Columbia Notebook (7 November 1956) UT.
4 “He was lying under”: John Walsh, “Research, you understand… Leonard Cohen,” Mojo (September 1994) 58.
5 “a certain kind of genius”: LC to Vince Scelsa, “Idiot’s Delight,” 6/13/93.
6 “really spinning”: LC to Vince Scelsa, “Idiot’s Delight,” 6/13/93.
7 “I was always only on the fringe”: Mojo (September 1994) 58.
8 “UNINTERRUPTED AND UNREVISED”: Jack Kerouac, “Introduction,” On The Road [Norwegian éd.], The Portable Kerouac, éd. Ann Charters (NY: Viking, 1995) 481.
9 “This magazine intends”: The Phoenix 1 (April 1957) [1].
10 “Riverside Church”: “Notebook, ca. 1956,” UT.
11 “durable, disciplined and athletic”: PG 137.
12 “old rules of light”: PG 171.
13 “the scene the heart”: PG 136.
14 “about her body and her beauty”: PG 140.
15 “I’d no sooner forget you”: White Notebook (September 1961), UT.
16 “Reader”: White Notebook (September 1961), UT.
17 “I would appreciate”: LC to Esther Cohen, 13 July 1961, UT.
18 “Your report”: EC to LC,? November 1961, UT.
19 “Let’s run away”: LC to Anne Sherman,? December 1961, UT.
20 “Don’t worry about me”: LC to Canada Council, 2 June 1961, UT.
21 “Must we find”: “Priests 1957,” SBE 78.
22 “Now Leonard Cohen”: IT to Desmond Pacey, 18 October 1958.
23 “What will become”: DP to IL, 29 October 1958.
24 “Layton, when we dance”: “Last Dance at the Four Penny,” SBE 71.
25 “Work, fine work”: “A Hundred Suits from Russia,” UT [3].
26 “one day”: “A Hundred Suits,” UT [3].
27 “One hundred”: “A Hundred Suits,” UT [4].
28 “My grandfather came”: A Ballet of Lepers, TS.ca. 1957, UT [1].
29 “Defeated he stood”: BAL, UT [59].
30 “each of us had”: BAL, UT [60].
31 “Flee from this place”: LC 5/12/94.
32 “I had a clock”: LC in Winfried Siemerling, “Interview,” Take This Waltz 168.
33 “How sad and beautiful”: BAL, UT [61].
34 “It happened”: BAL, UT [67].
35 “We are not mad”: BAL, UT [68].
36 “learn betrayal”: BAL, UT [74].
37 “to learn shame”: BAL, UT [74].
38 “probably felt”: IT in Cameron, Irving Layton 277.
39 “Don’t worry”: Vera Frenkel 3/2/95.
40 “torment on the bed”: VP 3/2/95.
41 “Leonard always needed”: VP 3/2/95.
42 “a red fire hydrant”: Al Purdy, Reaching for the Beaufort Sea (Maderia Park: Harbour Publishing, 1993) 221.
43 “within a slight”: AP 222.
44 “sad Duke of Windsor”: IT to DP, 29 June 1957.
45 “we had lots”: IT to DP, 29 June 1957.
46 “on the threshold”: “Goodbye Old Rosengarten,” TS ca. 1958, UT [1].
47 “He’s currently”: IT to DP, 13 February 1958.
48 “but Cohen”: IT to DP, 13 February 1958.
49 “It was written”: LC tape 8 April 1958.
50 “I wonder”: LC tape 8 April 1958.
51 “Well, ah, this”: LC tape, 8 April 1958.
52 “the nightclub poets”: Morley Callaghan, “Holiday Weekend in Montreal,” Maclean’s (30 August 1958) 42.
53 “is a kind of”: MC 44
54 “a waiter placed”: MC 44.
55 “Whatever I have written”: Untitled, June 1958, UT [1].
56 “Edgar, I had no choice”: LC quoted by EC 10/23/94.
57 “not even capable”: TD, “Patterns of Recent Canadian Poetry” Culture 19 (December 1958) 412.
58 “obscure cosmological imagery”: TD Culture 412.
59 “as stupid as it is false”: IT to DP 26 January 1959.
60 “the Canadian poet”: IT in Louis Dudek, Irving Layton, Raymond Souster, Cerberus (Toronto: Contact Press, 1952) 45.
61 “the fires”: LC in IT to DP 8 June 1959.
62 “Klein chose to be”: LC, “Loneliness and History,” ed. Winfried Siemerling, Take This Waltz 147.
63 “a certain Hebraic sense”: LC Matrix 45.
64 “His fate”: LC Matrix 45.
65 “I was always more”: LC Matrix 45.
66 “Dear Mr. McClelland”: LC to Jack McClelland 5/5/59, UT.
67 “I think”: JMcCT 7/23/94.
68 “too slight”: Claire Pratt to LC, 7/15/59, UT.
69 “no other poet”: CP to LC, 7/15/59, UT.
70 “I have bought”: LC to CP j/21/1959, UT.
71 “Please understand”: LC to CP 7/21/59, UT.
72 “inner-directed adolescents”: LC to CP 7/21/59, UT.
73 “Thank you”: LC to CP 7/21/59, UT.
74 “Can’t take it anymore”: IL to DP 6/8/59. Written in June, Layton reports Cohen’s proposed decision to change jobs in September.
75 “to liberate spiritual energy”: LC, “Comme un Guerrier,” Throat Culture 58.
76 “thanks to drugs”: LC, “Comme un Guerrier,” Throat Culture 58.
77 “enough Anglo-Saxon dignity”: IL to DP 19 November 1959.
78 “An All-Season Haiku”: LC, TS, fall 1959, UT.
Chapter 4
1 “As long as you”: LC, “Comme un Guerrier,” Throat Culture 59.
2 “She is partly”: LC, “Comme un Guerrier,” Throat Culture 59.
3 “London is welcoming”: LC, “Comme un Guerrier,” Throat Culture 59.
4 “permanent advisor”: LC, “Comme un Guerrier,” Throat Culture 59.
5 “very lovely”: LC to Esther Cohen 18 April 1962, UT.
6 “until by sheer weight”: BCQ 1.
7 “I’m glad the book”: LC to CP, 27 March 1960, UT.
8 “I wouldn’t like”: LC to CP, 27 March 1960, UT.
9 “the only copy”: LC to JMcCL 28 August 1960, UT.
10 “I said to myself”: LC, “Comme un Guerrier,” Throat Culture 59.
11 “I suppose”: IL to DP 15 February 1960.
12 “wild and naked perfection”: Henry Miller, The Colossus of Maroussi (1941; NY: New Directions, 1958) 55.
13 “six deal tables”: Charmian Clift, Peel Me a Lotus (London: Hutchinson, 1959) 15.
14 “in a wild spate of words”: Clift, Peel 60.
15 “horseshoe-shaped”: George Lailios to author 12 September 1994.
16 “the actors”: GL to author 12 September 1994.
17 “Bet between LC”: “Bet between LC and George Johnston,” 16 October 1961, UT.
18 “a lot of writing”: Cynthia Nolan in Garry Kinnane, George Johnston, A Biography (Melbourne: Thomas Nelson, 1986) 158.
19 “Pull up your sex”: LC 5/10/94.
20 “Forget the Grace”: “Fragment from a Journal,” SM 386.
21 “He exposed”: Don Lowe, Kingy (unpub.) 44.
22 “I don’t think”: DL, Kingy 48.
23 “living in a past century”: GL to author 12 September 1994.
24 “origins are truly”: GL to author 12 September 1994.
25 “I used to sit”: LC, “Journal,” 17 May 1966, UT.
26 “It wasn’t just”: LC, BBC 7/8/94.
27 “Marianne is perfect”: LC to IL, 21 April 1963, UT.
28 “the incarnation of the European woman”: Charles Gurd 7/12/94.
29 “the way she inhabited”: LC, BBC 7/8/94.
30 “Marianne and I”: LC, BBC 7/8/94.
31 “There was a woman”: LC, “Comme un Guerrier,” Throat Culture 59.
32 “Leonard was unique”: NB 12/29/94.
33 “You could not own”: NB 12/29/94.
34 “It has a huge terrace”: LC to Masha Cohen, 3 August 1961, UT.
35 “I wander through”: LC to EC,? October 1961, UT.
36 “But they came back”: LC to EC, 3 August 1961, UT.
37 “It is like receiving”: LC to MC, 18 October 1961, UT.
38 “having this house”: LC to Wog [Daniel Kraslavsky], 19 December 1961, UT.
39 “The years are flying”: LC to?, 16 December 1961, UT.
40 “The primitive circumstances”: FR 29.
41 “the first Hebrew”: LC 5/11/94.
42 “everything you saw”: LC, “Comme un Guerrier,” Throat Culture 59.
43 “You knew everything”: LC, “Comme un Guerrier,” Throat Culture 59.
44 “There’s sun all over”: LC to IL, 8 December 1961, UT.
45 “There’s something in the light”: LC in Michael Ballantyne, “Poet-Novelist Reflects on the Quebec Scene,” Montreal Star (26 October 1963) 2.
46 “Hydra—you can’t live”: LC 10/24/95.
47 “all the old potent guilts”: LC to “My dear friends,” (15 December 1960) UT.
48 “Since hearing the news”: LC to EC, 15 December 1960, UT.
49 “It took me some time”: LC to Maryann Greene 16 February 1961, UT.
50 “I have finished”: LC to Jake and Stella Pullman, 19 December 1961, UT.
51 “a protracted love-affair”: LC to DP, 23 February 1961, UT.
52 “every event described”: LC to JMcCL, 12 October 1960, UT.
53 “wanted to tell about”: LC to JMcCL, 12 October 1960, UT.
54 “He managed to offend”: LC to JMcCL, 9 March 1962, UT.
55 “I will always consider”: LC to JMcCL, 9 March 1962, UT.
56 “miserable … behalf”: LC to JMcCL, 8 December 1961; 26 July 1962, UT.
57 “a book without alibis”: LC to JMcCL, 4 July 1963, UT.
58 “perhaps its only value”: LC to Seymour Lawrence, 29 October 1961, UT.
59 “my work limps along”: LC to EC, 29 October 1961, UT.
60 “It doesn’t matter to me”: LC to JMcCL, 2 November 1961, UT.
61 “absolutely beautiful writing”: anon., Sheila Watson to LC, 29 January 1962, UT.
62 “too long”: SW to LC, 8 May 1962.
63 “Three in the morning”: LC to friends, 15? December 1960, UT.
64 “Except for this tiny”: LC to Bim, 17 February 1961, UT.
65 “We did it simply by”: LC in Canadian Theatre Review 14 (1977) 54.
66 “macabre, compelling thing”: IL to DP, 11 December 1960.
Chapter 5
1 “I am wild”: LC to Anne Hébert,? January-February 1961, UT.
2 “I had this mythology”: Tom Chaffin, “Conversations from a Room,” Canadian Forum (August/September 1983) 10.
3 “the day you left”: CP to LC, 27 March 1961, UT.
4 “The island”: FGL to parents, 5 April 1930, Poet in New York, tr. Greg Smith and Steven F. White (NY: Noonday Press, 1988) 255.
5 “presence urgently requested”: LC 5/11/94.
6 “I was Upton Sinclair”: LC 5/11/94.
7 “Your mother’s worried”: LC 5/11/94.
8 “This is no time”: IL to DP, 15 April 1961.
9 “Just think”: LC to JMcCL, 18 April 1961, UT.
10 “It’s going to be”: LC 5/11/94.
11 “to see a socialist revolution”: LC to Victor Cohen, 9 November 1962, UT.
12 “I’m one of the few men”: LC to VC, 9 November 1962.
13 “deep interest in violence”: Ladies and Gentlemen … Mr. Leonard Cohen(NPB film), 1965.
14 “The city was Havana”: “The Famous Havana Diary,” TS, UT 1.
15 “I enjoyed her”: “The Famous Havana Diary,” TS, UT 4–5.
16 “oppressive and repugnant”: LC to VC, 9 November 1962, UT.
17 “Power chops up”: LC to Cork Smith, 1 September 1963, UT.
18 “a tragic figure”: IL to DP, 4 May 1961.
19 “Communism is less sinister”: LC to Lonie?, 4 September 1961, UT.
20 “Dorian Grayish”: IL to DP, 13 May 1961.
21 “Leonard Cohen, 27”: dustjacket, SBE.
22 “For you”: “The Genius,” SBE 87.
23 “probably the best”: Robert Weaver, “Leonard Cohen’s Spice-Box Presents Sombre Vision,” Toronto Daily Star (10 June 1961) 29.
24 “The Lean and the Luscious”: David Bromige, “The Lean and the Luscious,” Canadian Literature 10 (Autumn 1961) 87–88.
25 “easily the most promising”: Desmond Pacey, Creative Writing in Canada (1952; New edition, revised and enlarged, Toronto: Ryerson, 1961) 247.
26 “There isn’t a single”: IL to DP, 12 April 1962.
27 “Psychologically, I think”: IL to DP, 12 April 1962.
28 “His passport was”: LC to Robert Weaver, 20 May 1961, UT.
29 “Your purity”: “Alexander Trocchi,” FH 47.
30 “yield profits”: LC to Canada Council, 2 June 1961, UT.
31 “distance is essential”: LC to Canada Council, 2 June 1961, UT.
32 “I remind them”: LC to Shaar Hashomayim Hadassah, 11 June 1961.
33 “they weep most of the day”: LC to EC, 13 July 1961, UT.
34 “that makes”: LC to EC, 13 July 1961, UT.
35 “rooted on the rock”: LC to EC, 13 July 1961, UT.
36 “his Gothic insincerities”: LC, dustjacket, The Favourite Game (London: Secker & Warburg, 1963.
37 “Thank god for”: LC to JMcCL, 18 August 1961, UT.
38 “I gather the Greek wines”: IL to DP, 28 August, 1961.
39 “dig deep”: LC to JMcCL, 18 August 1961.
40 “I chose a lonely country”: “For E.J.P.,” FH 69.
41 “you just felt good”: LC in “Comme un Guerrier,” Throat Culture 59.
42 “there is my beautiful house”: LC to RW, 22 November 1962, UT.
43 “Of men the sky demands”: “Here Was the Harbour,” PH 45.
44 “everywhere is going Communist”: LC to EC, 7 October 1961, UT.
45 “My abandoned narcotics”: “Indictment of the Blue Hole,” FH 19.
46 “Is there anything emptier”: “The Drawer’s Condition,” FH 16.
47 “I’ve smoked”: LC to Madeleine?, 12 November 1961, UT.
48 “In this part of the planet”: “We are getting to know the police better,” TS 1965, UT [3–4].
49 “I write a year’s verse”: LC to John B. Oakes,? October 1961, UT.
50 “the next book”: LC to CP 18, September 1961, U?.
51 “It’s so simple”: “For Marianne,” FH 52–53.
52 “seems to have endured”: LC to IL, 8 December 1961, UT.
53 “Lead me into families”: “For a long while,” PH 51.
54 “Something in the air”: LC to EC, 18 April 1962, UT.
55 “I’ve been working on”: LC to EC, 18 April 1962, UT.
56 “it’s so melancholy”: LC to EC, 22 April 1962, UT.
57 “Eating and kissing”: LC to Stephen Vizicenzy, 27 April 1962, UT.
58 “Norway is blonde”: LC to RW, 14 May 1962, UT.
59 “I can be seen Twisting”: LC to RW, 14 May 1962, UT.
60 “Strange to find myself”: LC to Yafa Lerner, 16 December 1961, LCA.
61 “This is the same novel”: LC to Peter Dwyer, 31 January 1962, UT.
62 “be interested in publishing”: LC to JMcCL, 6 March 1962, UT.
63 “it’s the kind of chutzpa”: LC to Rabbi Samuel Cass, 6 March 1962, UT.
64 “London is horrible”: LC to RW, 6 March 1962, UT.
65 “Over the two years”: LC to Daniel Kraslavsky, 10 March 1962, LCA.
66 “twice as slowly”: LC to Madeleine?, [10?] March 1962, LCA.
67 “terrified of waking up”: LC to Madeleine?, [10?] March 1962, LCA.
68 “fight for some tiny”: LC to Madeline?, [10?] March 1962, LCA.
69 “I feel I’ve lost”: LC to Madeline?, [10?] March 1962, LCA.
70 “There are a million things”: LC to Marianne Ihlen, 10 March 1962, LCA.
71 “I long for you”: LC to Marianne Ihlen, 10 March 1962, LCA.
72 “just as I always”: LC to MC, 10 March 1962, LCA.
73 “the things which are given”: LC to MC, 10 March 1962, LCA.
74 “the secret of my triumph”: LC to MC, 10 March 1962, LCA.
75 “I want to tear”: LC to IL, 23 March 1962, LCA.
76 “Too bad because”: LC to EC, 26 March 1962, LCA.
77 “beautiful book”: LC to EC, 26 March 1962, LCA.
78 “What a joyless farce”: LC to EC, 26 March 1962, LCA.
79 “It’s the first time”: LC to EC, 26 March 1962, LCA.
Chapter 6
1 “in the last six thousand years”: LC to MC, 20 May 1962, UT.
2 “My house is big”: LC to MC, 20 May 1962, UT.
3 “Buying this house”: LC to MC, 30 May 1962, UT.
4 “She’s a little overwhelmed”: LC to EC, 29 June 1962, UT.
5 “all the old chaos”: LC to Madeleine? 30 June 1962, UT.
6 “nothing sounds any good”: LC to Roland Gant, 26 July 1962, UT.
7 “I don’t intend to open”: LC to EC, 13 August 1961, UT.
8 “whom I had never spoken to”: LC to EC, 30 April 1963, UT.
9 “I’ve greeted people”: LC to EC, 2 July 1963, UT.
10 “intolerably touristic”: LC to EC, 2 July 1963, UT.
11 “It is hard to be”: LC to Renee Rothman, 2 July 1963, UT.
12 “eliminated a kind of self-conscious”: LC to RG, 26 August 1962, UT.
13 “I think I have”: LC to George Dickerson, 30 October 1962, UT.
14 “One day I found”: LC to GD, 30 October 1962, UT.
15 “anyone with an ear”: LC to IL, 15 October 1962, UT.
16 “Has the world”: LC to RW, 22 November 1962, LCA.
17 “coffin-colored room”: LC, “Luggage Fire Sale,” Partisan Review 36 (Winter 1969) 91.
18 “change is the only aphrodisiac”: “Luggage Fire Sale,” FR 92.
19 “a couple of women”: “Luggage Fire Sale,” FR 91.
20 “and a complete suntan”: “Luggage Fire Sale,” FR 91.
21 “sweetest aspect”: “Luggage Fire Sale,” FR 92.
22 “Cultural crises”: LC, unpub. report, [1962], LCA, [3].
23 “It’s a perfect little machine”: LC to IL, 26 February 1963, UT.
24 “[Yeats] has had”: LC to CS, 10 May 1963, LCA.
25 “Tell all your gold friends”: LC to CS, 22 May 1963, LCA.
26 “The photograph is of”: LC to CS, 7 July 1963, LCA.
27 “I haven’t been to sleep”: LC to SW, 15 February 1963, LCA.
28 “a first novel”: JMcCL to LC, 31 May 1963, McM.
29 “a third novel”: LC to JMcCL, 4 July 1963, UT.
30 “I will write a book”: LC, to JMcCL, 4 July 1963, UT.
31 “a beautiful book”: JMcCL to LC, 31 May, 1963, McM.
32 “one of the great dangers”: JMcCL to LC, 31 May, 1963, McM.
33 “I’ve never written easily”: LC to JMcCL, 4 July 1963, UT.
34 “will speak to nobody”: LC to JMcCL, 4 July 1963, UT.
35 “I accept the hemlock”: LC to CS, 10 May 1963, LCA.
36 “a fairly original study”: LC to CS, 1 September 1963, LCA.
37 “best creative periods”: LC to EC, 12 Nay 1963, UT.
38 “prose poems”: LC to CBC, 12 June 1963, UT.
39 “I gave my mental health”: LC to Marian McNamara, 6 September 1963, c.
40 “So many of my values”: LC to CS, 1 September 1963, LCA.
41 “Because you are Leonard Cohen”: JMcCL to LC, 22 August 1963, McM.
42 “feeling as you do”: LC to JMcCL, 9 September 1963, UT.
43 “I know this book”: LC to JMcCL, 9 September 1963, UT.
44 “they’ve been staggered”: JMcCL McCL., 9 September 1963, UT.
45 “This is a manuscript”: anon. to LC,? October 1963, MCM.
46 “This poetry is full of”: anon. to LC, 14 August 1963, McM.
47 “immature”:? to LC, 14 August 1963, McM.
48 “With scorn, love, nausea”: CP to LC, 13 August 1963, McM.
49 “I was ambushed by fifty”: LC to JMcCL, 29 March 1964, UT.
50 “The title is”: LC to JMcCL, 29 May 1964, UT.
51 “with my face for tits”: LC to JMcCL, 2 September 1964, UT.
52 “The whole point”: LC to JMcCL, 16 August 1964, UT.
53 “Note on the title”: FH [iii].
54 “I don’t profess”: JMcCL to LC, 11 September 1963, McM.
55 “has made me and the book”: LC to JMcCL, 1 March 1965, UT.
56 “The Mediterranean”: LC to IL, 6 August 1963, UT.
57 “Well, you know”: “So Long, Marianne,” SLC.
58 “I had the woman I loved”: “The Price of This Book,” DLM 168.
59 “a violent disintegration”: LC to CS, 6 September 1963, UT.
60 “what I want from people”: LC to CS, 6 September 1963, UT.
61 “The further a writer”: LC to CS, 4 August 1963, UT.
62 “A tall blonde girl”: LC to IL, 1 September 1963, UT.
63 “Lots of French lesbians”: LC to EC, 31 August 1963, UT.
64 “from a sexual point of view”: LC to EC, 31 August 1963, UT.
65 “I threw open the shutters”: ES 10–11.
66 “there were thousands of poems”: LC, English Poetry in Quebec, ed. John Glassco (Montreal: McGill University Press, 1965) 42.
67 “a self-authenticated speaking”: IL, EPQ 30.
68 “The mass magazine”: LC, EPQ 63.
69 “were never lovers”: LC in Barbara Amiel, “Leonard Cohen says that to all the girls,” Maclean’s (18 September 1978): 58.
70 “Suzanne takes you down”: “Suzanne,” SLC.
71 “And Jesus was a sailor”: “Suzanne,” SLC.
72 “compassionate attention”: LC, “The John Hammond Years, Pt. 12” CBC Radio (October 1986). “Now Suzanne takes your hand”: “Suzanne,” SLC.
73 “Most of my songs”: LC, “The John Hammond Years,” CBC.
74 “uncovering the lyric”: LC, “The John Hammond Years,” CBC.
75 “TV stations pay me”: LC to “Dear People,” 11 December 1963, UT.
76 “I was mailing a letter”: LC, 11 December 1963, UT.
77 “this Sunday”: LC, 11 December 1963, UT.
78 “Poet-Novelist Says”: “Poet-Novelist Says Judaism Betrayed,” Canadian Jewish Chronicle (10 January 1964) 3, 15 carried a report of the meeting. The edited talk appears in Take This Waltz, 143–153.
79 “Draw me with a valuable sign”: “Foreign God,” PH 74.
80 “please quit soon”: LC to Earle Birney, 21 February 1964, UT.
81 “the distinction between”: LC to Ann Caffin, 21? February 1964, UT.
82 “there’s something about the West”: LC to AC, 21? February 1964, UT.
83 “Vancouver is”: LC to AC, 21? February 1964, UT.
84 “fairly triumphant”: LC to MMcN, 29 March 1964, UT.
85 “Most of all”: LC to “Dear People,”? February 1964, UT.
86 “liturgy, a big confessional oration”: LC to Phyllis Webb, CBC TV, 29 April 1966.
87 “in the country”: LC to “Dear People,”? February 1964, UT.
88 “new novel, PLASTIC BIRCHBARK”: LC to JMCCL, 2 September 1964, UT.
89 “the whole system collapsed”: LC, “Comme un Guerrier,” Throat Culture 60.
90 “Leonard Cohen”: Time 84 (6 November) 1964: 16.
91 “the reading-tour”: LC to JMcCL, 1 March 1965, McM.
92 “torn on the conflicts”: LC to MMcN, 29 March 1964, UT.
93 “You’re coming to your goal”: Montreal Star, 13 July 1963, 1.
94 “in ten years”: LC to “Dear People,”? February 1964, UT.
95 “I have made a commitment”: LC to George Johnston,? February 1964, UT.
96 “embodied in her own life”: LC in Winfried Siemerling, “A Political Constituency that Really Exists,” Take This Waltz 161.
97 “We have among us adepts”: LC, “We are getting to know the police better,” 1965 [2–3], LCA.
98 “and if it gets by”: LC to JMcCL, 1 March 1965, McM.
99 “written the Bahgavad Gita”: LC to JMcCL, 20 March 1965, UT.
100 “BEAUTIFUL LOSERS”: LC, UT.
101 “You have been”: BL 149.
102 “a man is writing this”: BL 102.
103 “how to treat”: LC to MMcN, 27 April 1965, c.
104 “As far as the prologue”: LC to CS, 10 July 1965, LCA.
105 “my fast has been”: LC, prose fragment, 1966? UT.
106 “Canada with the Maple Leaf”: anon., 30 December 1965, McM.
107 “honest-to-God”: Leslie Fiedler, 17 January 1966, UT.
108 “It astounds and baffles”: JMcCL, 15 June 1965, McM.
109 “for a brief period”: LC to JMcCL,? August 1965, McM.
110 “Fiend of the Kaballa!”: LC to JMcCL,? August 1965, McM.
111 “the book I hold”: LC to JMcCL,? August, 1965, McM.
112 “exhibitionism I argued off”: LC to JMcCL,? August 1965, McM.
113 “Canadian critical opinion”: LC to JMcCL,? August 1965, McM.
114 “if you can get”: LC to JMcCL,? August, 1965, McM.
115 “Driven by loneliness and despair”: LC, prose fragment, 1965, UT.
116 “I lost my only carbon”: LC to MMcN, 4 August 1965, c.
117 “Live forever”: telegram to LC, 29 March 1966, UT.
118 “a fantasy wrapped”: Robert Fulford, “Leonard Cohen’s Nightmare Novel,” Toronto Star (26 April 1966) 27.
119 “the story concerns”: Miriam Waddington, “Bankrupt Ideas and Chaotic Style,” Globe Magazine (30 April 1966) 17.
120 “i give the book of Cohens”: bill bissett, “!!!!,” Alphabet 13 (June 1967) 94.
121 “it’s the best thing”: LC in S. Lumsden, Weekend Magazine (12 September 1970) 24.
122 “most of the people”: JMcCL to George Renison, 21 April 1966, McM.
123 “because you”: JMcCL to LC, 9 May 1966, McM.
124 “calling it”: JMCCL, to LC, 9 May 1966, MCM.
125 “It is pleasant to think”: Robert Fulford, “Leonard Cohen, the TV Star,” Toronto Star (28 July 1966) 31.
126 “I thought it was time”: Fulford, Toronto Star (28 July 1966) 31.
127 “is no substitute”: “These notebooks,” ph 61.
128 “So you’re the kind”: “So you’re the kind of,” ph 11.
129 “How can I use the gull’s”: “The stars turn,” ph 40.
Chapter 7
1 “bounded out of the room”: S. Djwa, The Politics of the Imagination, A Life of F.R. Scott 290.
2 “Do you know”: Sid Katz 12/24/95.
3 “In hindsight”: LC in William Ruhlmann, “The Stranger Music of Leonard Cohen,” Goldmine 19 (19 February 1993) 13.
4 “I felt very much”: LC in Williams, Crawdaddy (March 1975) 55.
5 “Once I hit”: LC, Goldmine 13.
6 “rich in character”: LC 5/11/94.
7 “iron regard”: LC 5/11/94.
8 “on a lot of involuntary trips”: LC, “Idiot’s Delight,” 6/13/93.
9 “Once upon a time”: LC concert tape, Amsterdam, 30 October 1980.
10 “Are you looking for someone?”: LC, Oslo Norway, 2/13/88.
11 “She had this deep”: LC, “Idiot’s Delight,” 6/13/93.
12 “I finally got it right”: LC, “Idiot’s Delight,” 6/13/93.
13 “KILL COOL”: LC in Mojo (September 1994) 58.
14 “professionaly tortured”: vf 3/2/95.
15 “I am so impatient”: LC, Journal (March 1967) LCA.
16 “Everything serves his work”: Yafa Lerner 12/17/94
17 “the perfect Aryan ice queen”: LC in Scott Cohen, “Leonard Cohen,” Yakety Yak (NY: Simon and Schuster, 1994) 164.
18 “I saw this girl”: LC, October 1974, in D. Thompson, Beyond the Velvet Underground (London: Omnibus, 1989) 29.
19 “macabre face”: David Antrim in 1966 in Thompson, Beyond 30.
20 “the screeching ugliness”: Paul Morrissey in Thompson, Beyond 31.
21 “secret marriage”: Richard Goldstein in Thompson, Beyond 17.
22 “in those days”: LC in Thompson, Beyond 29.
23 “I was lighting candles”: LC, Mojo (September 1994) 58.
24 “Terrible day”: LC, Journal, 15 March 1967, LCA.
25 “poet maudit ca. 1890”: LC, Journal, 15 March 1967, LCA.
26 “It’s a pity if”: LC, prose fragment, UT [1].
27 “the creator of the Black Photograph”: LC, prose fragment, UT [1].
28 “My work among other things”: LC, prose fragment, UT [2].
29 “perplexed by her conversation”: LC, “Comme un Guerrier,” Throat Culture 61.
30 “Completely disregarded”: LC in Robin Pike, “September 15th 1974” Zig Zag, The Rock Magazine 5 (October 1974) 48.
31 “I put my hand on”: Mojo (September 1994) 59.
32 “Once in my room”: LC in Thompson 29.
33 “She said she loved”: LC in Goldmine 13.
34 “I’m really in the middle”: LC in “The John Hammond Years,” CBC Radio, October 1986.
35 “Roman Catholicism, Buddhism, L.S.D.”: LC in Gaby Goliger, “Leonard Cohen,” Echo 1 (16 December 1966) 13.
36 “just speak from the center”: David Kaufman, one of the three visiting students, reporting Cohen’s statement 1/12/96.
37 “You got it, Leonard”: LC in “The John Hammond Years,” CBC.
38 “hypnotic effect”: John Hammond, “The John Hammond Years,” CBC.
39 “Leonard set”: John Hammond, “The John Hammond Years,” CBC.
40 “Leonard, we know”: Walter Yetnikoff in Goldmine 20
41 “a compassionate lapse”: LC, “The John Hammond Years,” CBC.
42 “Leonard always needed”: John Hammond, “The John Hammond Years,” CBC.
43 “pillows of sound”: John Hammond in Goldmine 14.
44 “linear, should be smooth”: LC in Goldmine 15.
45 “The songs and arrangements”: LC, SLC.
46 “unguessable”: Buffy Sainte-Marie, “Leonard Cohen, His Songs,” Sing Out 17 (1967) 16.
47 “It’s like losing”: Sainte-Marie, Sing Out 16.
48 “lost in New York City”: LC, “Notes,” BLC.
49 “What do you think?”: LC 11/14/94.
50 “I sort of felt”: LC in Jack Hafferkamp, “Ladies and Gents, Leonard Cohen,” Rolling Stone (1972) rpt. in Songs of Love and Hate (New York: Amsco Publishing, 1972) [2].
51 “the stories of the street”: “Stories of the Street,” SLC.
52 “It was the only time”: LC, Mojo (September 1994) 59.
53 “our most sophisticated singer”: LC in Rowland, Musician (1988) 98. Dylan as Cohen: Yakety Yak 13.
54 “Well, I think”: LC in Adrienne Clarkson, “Leonard Cohen, A Monster of Love,” Take This Waltz 25.
55 “pace runners”: Joni Mitchell 8/26/94.
56 “the extension of our friendship”: LC 11/14/94.
57 “They showed me the film”: LC, Yakety Yak 165.
58 “James Joyce is not dead”: “Cohen Overwhelms Listeners With Prose, Poetry, and Song,” Introspectrum, Buffalo State University (11 April 1967) [1].
59 “I cannot sing unless”: Sid Katz 12/24/95.
60 “guitar playing”: Sid Katz 12/24/95.
61 “None of you guys”: Marty Machat, Goldmine 11.
62 “strictly an underground celebrity”: William Kloman, “I’ve Been on the Outlaw Scene Since 15,” NYT(28 January 1968) D21.
63 “on the verge of”: NYT (28 January 1968) D21.
64 “When I see a woman”: NYT (28 January 1968) D21.
65 “I wish the women”: NYT (28 January 1968) D21.
66 “have a pathological tone”: NYT (28 January 1968) D22.
67 “rediscover the cruxcifixion”: NYT (28 January 1968) D22.
68 “on the alienation scale”: Donal Henahan, “Alienated Young Man Creates Some Sad Music,” NYT (28 January 1968) II: 21. “Pity”: Maclean’s (February 1968) 72.
69 “Cohen suffers”: Richard Goldstein, “Beautiful Creep,” Village Voice (27 December 1967) 18.
70 “the environment”: LC in Alastair Pirrie, “Cohen Regrets,” New Musical Express (10 March 10973) 66.
71 “I never married”: LC, Musician 98.
72 “The thing died very quickly”: LC, Musician 98.
73 “What is Scientology?”: JM 8/26/94.
74 “Did you ever go clear?”: “Famous Blue Raincoat,” SLH.
75 “My new laws”: “Why I Happen to be Free,” PH 60.
Chapter 8
1 “had catlike characters”: Lailios to author 9/12/94.
2 “God, when I see”: LC in Barbara Amiel, “Leonard Cohen says that to All the Girls,” Maclean’s (18 September 1978) 58.
3 “I fear we are to be”: LC 5/11/94.
4 “Leonard, don’t say”: LC 5/11/94.
5 “to make us laugh”: he, People 13 (14 January 1980) 57.
6 “Diamonds in the Mine”: SLH
7 “I moved there”: LC, “Comme un Guerrier,” Throat Culture 62.
8 “As long as someone”: Suzanne Elrod, People (14 January 1980) 57.
9 “I leave to several”: LC, “The Pro,” Nashville Notebook of 1969, LCA; also see “The Pro,” DLM 187.
10 “What do you want?”: Bob Johnston 10/29/94.
11 “a musical bodyguard”: Charlie Daniels 11/3/94.
12 “to make his voice”: BJ 10/29/94.
13 “Leonard has always had”: BJ 10/29/94.
14 “The voice is uncertain”: LC, “Notes,” BLC.
15 “created an atmosphere”: LC, Goldmine 16.
16 “read the Zohar”: LC, Journal [1969], LCA.
17 “Sometimes I need you naked”: “You Know Who I Am,” SFR.
18 “seems to return me”: LC, “Notes,” BLC.
19 “Like a bird”: “Like a Bird on the Wire,” SFR.
20 “I would stare out”: LC in Paul Zollo, “Leonard Cohen, Inside the Tower of Song,” SongTalk 3; 2 (1993): 31.
21 “three guys”: SongTalk 3: 2: 31.
22 “Who are you?”: LC in Paul Williams Crawdaddy (March 1975) 52.
23 “Forget everything I said”: Crawdaddy 52.
24 “not only serious”: Vincent Canby, “McCabe and Mrs. Miller,” NYT (25 June 1971) 17.
25 “delivered sotto voce”: John Simon, “An Appalling Plague has been Loosed on Our Films,” NYT (19 September 1971) 11: 13.
26 “like Villon with frostbite”: Time (25 January 1993) 57.
27 “Show me”: Steve Sanfield, “The Inner Passage,” Zen and Hasidism, ed. Harold Heifetz (Wheaton, Ill.” The Theosophical Publishing House, 1978) 223.
28 “Nice song”: LC in Sanfield, Zen and Hasidism 233.
29 “What makes Leonard Cohen”: Columbia Records advertisement 1969.
30 “May I respectfully request”: Vancouver Province (7 May 1969) 14.
31 “would not conform to”: Vancouver Province (7 May 1969) 14. Also see “Quebec Writers Take Literary Lion’s Share,” Montreal Star (22 April 1969) 22.
32 “C’mere. I want to talk”: Mordecai Richler in Alan Twigg, “The Gospel According to Leonard Cohen,” Georgia Straight 12 (10–17 November 1978) 6; Sheldon Tietlbaum, “Leonard Cohen, Pain Free,” Los Angeles Times Magazine (5 April 1992) 22.
33 “get behind Canada then”: LC 12/29/94.
34 “I have no idea”: JMcCL 7/23/94.
35 “MARITA”: SP 239.
36 “Go your own way”: Hugh Whitney Morrison, at one time married to Marita La Fleche, 11/14/93.
37 “a modern housewife’s lament”: NYT (29 September 1968) 21.
38 “Some were songs first”: K. Murphy and G. Gross, “Leonard Cohen,” NYT (13 April 1909) VI: 36.
39 “When poetry strays”: Ezra Pound quoted by LC in H. Kubernik and J. Pierce, “Cohen’s New Skin,” Melody Maker (1 March 1975) 41.
40 “Leonard Cohen: the poet as hero”: Saturday Night (June 1969).
41 “He acts taller”: Jack Batten, “The Poet as Hero Pt. 1” SN (1969) 24.
42 “a betrayal of mankind”: “Comme un Guerrier,” Throat Culture 62.
43 “I swore by the sunlight”: ES 11.
44 “Seig Heil!”: LC 2/17/94.
45 “captivating self abasement”: Canadian Press wire story, 13 May 1970.
46 “Word gets around”: Tony Palmer, “A Modern Troubadour,” Observer (7 June) 1970.
47 “Mr. Cohen sings”: Michael Jahn, “Cohen and ‘Army’ Sing in Forest Hills,” NYT (27 July 1970) 18.
48 “If you don’t like”: LC 2/17/94.
49 “did the damndest thing”: Kris Kristofferson, Take This Waltz 104.
50 “Leonard Cohen is an old”: LC, “Comme un Guerrier,” Throat Culture 62.
51 “Cohen lays on”: Farr in Jack Batten, “Cohen, the Genuine Article,” Globe and Mail (5 December 1970) 33.
52 “I decided I”: LC in Lumsden, Weekend Magazine (12 September 1970) 25.
53 “The book has been”: LC in Lumsden, Weekend Magazine (12 September 1970) 25.
54 “a symbol of their own”: Dorman 233–34.
55 “absolutely everything”: LC, “Comme un Guerrier,” Throat Culture 62.
56 “I began to believe”: LC, “Comme un Guerrier,” Throat Culture 62.
57 “I fell in love with”: FR [91].
58 “familiar poison, dependence and love”: LC, “Diary, Antigua, August 1973,” LCA [1].
59 “Sometimes I feel”: LC in Lumsden, Weekend Magazine (12 September 1970) 24.
60 “Suffering has led me”: LC in Lumsden, Weekend Magazine (12 September 1970) 25.
61 “You’ve got to recreate”: LC in Lumsden, Weekend Magazine (12 September 1970) 25.
Chapter 9
1 “I had, as the model”: LC, Goldmine 17.
2 “thought I looked like”: LC, “Notes,” BLC.
3 “But the skylight is like skin”: “Last Year’s Man,” SLH.
4 “with each”: LC in H. Kibernick, “Cohen through the years,” Melody Maker (6 March 1975) 13.
5 “the same old droning work”: LC in Pirrie, “Cohen Regrets,” New Music Express (10 March 1973) 66.
6 “European blues”: LC in H. Kubernik and J. Pierce, “Cohen’s New Skin,” Melody Maker (1 March 1975) 41.
7 “the reason I need girls”: LC in Paul Saltzman, “Famous Last Words from Leonard Cohen,” Maclean’s 85 (June 1972) 80.
8 “I’m just reeling”: LC in Saltzman 78.
9 “Oh boy, we get to do”: LC quoted by BJ 10/29/94.
10 “Once I was walking”: LC in Burr Snider, “Leonard Cohen, Zooey Glass in Europe,” Leonard Cohen, The Artist and His Critics, ed. Michael Gnarowski (Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1976) 61–62.
11 “One got the feeling”: Roy Hollingworth, “Leonard Cohen,” Melody Maker (1 April 1972) 14.
12 “I have no more songs”: LC in Hollingworth 14.
13 “Should we not try some?”: LC 10/24/95.
14 “Like the Eucharist”: LC 10/24/95.
15 “Is this All?”: LC 10/24/95.
16 “There are nights”: LC in Dorman 259.
17 “Trying to maintain”: LC in Dorman 242.
18 “life was art and God was music”: Jennifer Warnes 5/13/94.
19 “to squeezing memory and vocabulary”: FR 86–87.
20 “pious moods”: FR 87; originally a journal entry dated 26 July 1972, LCA.
21 “You ask me how I write”: FR 87.
22 “It took me eighty poems”: Saltzman 79.
23 “because I have the feeling”: Saltzman 80.
24 “what alone matters”: IL, inscription in LC’s copy of ES dated 4 December 1972.
25 “Partner in Spirit”: LC, cancelled dedication, DLM, LCA.
26 “the Lion of our Youth”: LC, cancelled dedication, DLM, LCA.
27 “To the late Robert Hershorn”: “Dedication,” RS.
28 “I can’t seem to bring”: LC, “Robert Appears Again,” Writing Away, The PEN Canada Travel Anthology, ed. Constance Rooke (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1994) 54.
29 “It was a tricky time”: LC 5/12/94.
30 “It began”: LC in Paul King, “Love, Zen and The Search for Self,” Vancouver Sun (30 June 1983) L6.
31 “I can’t get”: LC 5/10/94.
32 “Bring friend”: LC 5/10/94.
33 “It’s going to hurt”: LC 5/10/94.
34 “the revenge of World War II”: LC 5/10/94.
35 “Even as we lie here”: “O darling,” ES in.
36 “I dreamed about this”: LC 5/11/94.
37 “How do you realize”: LC 5/11/94.
38 “Where are the poems”: “I’d like to read,” ES 14.
39 “In many ways”: LC Goldmine 18.
40 “welcome to this book”: “How we loved you,” ES 115–16.
41 “Come down to my room”: “Come down,” ES 84.
42 “Why don’t you”: “You are almost always,” ES 82.
43 “the 15-year-old”: “the fifteen-year-old,” ES 97.
44 “I am no longer”: “I am no longer,” ES 24.
45 “write with compassion”: “The silly girl,” ES 39.
46 “Each man”: “Each man,” ES 122.
47 “I have no talent left:” “I have no talent,” ES 112.
48 “It was like dipping”: LC in Roy MacSkimming, “‘New’ Leonard Cohen opens up his thoughts,” Toronto Star (22 January 1975) E16.
49 “I’m thirty-eight years”: LC, autobiographical fragment (1973) LCA.
50 “While she suffers”: FR 88.
51 “Listening to gypsy violins”: FR 88.
52 “fighting over scraps”: FR 89.
53 “the mad mystic hammering”: Daphne Richardson, “Notes,” LS.
54 “In the House of Honesty”: “Seems So Long Ago, Nancy,” LS
55 “I’m too old”: LC in Twigg, Georgia Straight 24.
56 “I just cannot stand”: LC to Roy Hollingworth in Melody Maker (14 February 1973) reported in “Leonard Cohen Quits his Musical Interests Will Stick to Writing,” Toronto Star (15 February 1973) 32.
57 “no longer … to be tangled up”: LC in Toronto Star (15 Feb 1973) 32.
58 “I never did retire”: LC in “Leonard Cohen: A Sad Poet Gets Happy,” Toronto Star (30 June 1973) 34.
59 “Bed-centered play”: Hamilton Spectator (5 June 1973) [n.p.].
60 “musical journey”: Clive Barnes, NYT reprinted in Vancouver Sun (28 September 1973) 24.
61 “to recover from”: LC in Pike, Zig Zag 47.
62 “because it is so horrible”: FR 5; DLM 54.
63 “to make my atonement”: LC, Vancouver Sun (20 October 1973) 12.
64 “What a burden”: FR 11.
65 “I never became a sign”: FR 12.
66 “I won’t fuck”: FR 12.
67 “Nothing can stop me”: FR 16.
68 “I could see”: FR 20.
69 “I am in”: FR 22.
70 “The war was”: FR 24.
71 “long, stainless steel legs”: FR 30.
72 “I went immediately to”: FR 33.
73 “After I had showered”: FR 33.
74 “You will only sing”: FR 31.
75 “But I want her”: FR 31.
76 “tanks are the only”: FR 34.
77 “I manage to kill”: FR 34.
78 “May I entertain”: “My Life in Art,” McM. 40; this is a more polished section of The Final Revision of My Life in Art.
79 “It was very informal”: LC in Pike, Zig Zag 47.
80 “but you get caught up”: LC in Pike, Zig Zag 47.
81 “Feeling good in the desert”: “My Life in Art,” McM. 41.
82 “the people stop me”: “My Life in Art,” McM. 42.
83 “acid into diplomatic cocktail parties”: “Field Commander Cohen,” NS.
84 “passion and possession”: “My Life in Art,” McM. 43.
85 “It all breaks down”: “Pulled out of bed,” Prose Fragment, LCA [2].
86 “says I took away”: “Pulled out of bed,” LCA [2].
87 “make peace with the language of love”: FR 95.
88 “It’s no good”: LC, journal fragment [1973] LCA.
89 “What unfreezes a man?”: LC, ms. fragment, LCA, which continues with “By whose authority does he admit the Gulf Stream into his crystal? How does the humiliated spirit find its way out of the dead Kaballah?” cf. DLM 61.
Chapter 10
1 “I needed so much”: “The Night Comes On,” VP.
2 “If you want to see”: Joshu Sasaki Roshi, Buddha is the Center of Gravity (San Cristobal, New Mexico: Lama Foundation, 1974) 46.
3 “You should sing sadder”: Roshi to LC, “Comme un Guerrier,” Throat Culture 62.
4 “I need to go deeper”: LC, “Comme un Guerrier,” Throat Culture 62.
5 “When I go there”: LC, People 13 (14 January 1980) 57.
6 “the end of my life in art”: DLM 190.
7 “Six-fifty [a.m.]”: DLM 192.
8 “I swim in your love”: DLM 62.
9 “I came so far for beauty”: “Came So Far for Beauty,” RS.
10 “Tibetan Desire”: BL 10.
11 “I am growing sick”: FR 26.
12 “Once I walked”: FR 30.
13 “Goodnight once again”: FR 95.
14 “The man in chains”: FR 97.
15 “I lost that”: FR 103.
16 “It’s the least painful”: FR 112.
17 “Too early for the rainbow”: “The Gypsy’s Wife,” RS.
18 “So the Chinese girl”: FR 103.
19 “It will become clear”: DLM 21.
20 “You got old”: “Is This What You Wanted?,” NS.
21 “I rise up from her arms”: “There Is A War,” NS.
22 “has the deepest understanding”: LC in H. Kubernik, “Cohen Through the Years,” Melody Maker (6 March 1975) 13.
23 “Thank you”: LC in Pike, Zig Zag 50.
24 “Maybe because”: LC in Danny Fields, “Leonard Cohen Looks at Himself,” Soho News 1 (5 December 1974) 8.
25 “When I stand”: LC in Fields, Soho News 9.
26 “one of the strongest”: H. Kubernik and J. Pierce, “Cohen, A True Craftsman,” Melody Maker (28 December 1974) 12.
27 “the first lover”: FR 106.
28 “There is a lot”: John Rockwell, “Leonard Cohen Gives His Songs,” NYT (9 February 1975) 16.
29 “he looks like an overworked”: Andrew Weiner, “Poet on the Rack,” New Musical Express (5 April 1975) 33.
30 “It is not exactly”: FR 36–37.
31 “street father”: FR 40.
32 “to teach my son”: FR 40.
33 “I am going”: FR 43.
34 “then the obscene silence”: FR 44.
35 “created so much tougher”: FR 45.
36 “I gave a woman”: FR 45.
37 “The moon is over”: FR 46–47.
38 “against Domestic Conversations”: FR 48.
39 “The first woman”: FR 48.
40 “Without the Name”: FR 52.
41 “My heart longs”: DLM 63.
42 “Names preserve”: BL 40.
43 “Leonard hasn’t been”: PH 33.
44 “When it comes to”: DLM 79.
45 “I am almost”: DLM 212.
46 “We will go back”: FR 53.
47 “I should have killed”: FR 53.
48 “who loves me”: FR 57.
49 “Did I know”: FR 64.
50 “Desire in Athens”: FR 65.
51 “To see me you must”: FR 81.
52 “not been denied”: FR 82.
53 “We didn’t get”: LC 4/21/95.
54 “I decided to worship”: FR 85.
55 “in the style of”: FR 72.
56 “who lighted up”: FR 73.
57 “the song could not”: FR 73.
58 “I don’t know why”: “Notes,” BLC.
59 “Body important”: LC 4/21/95.
60 “surprising how he sings”: Rob Mackie, “Romance at the Broncoburger,” Street Life (12–25 June 1976) 15.
61 “He told me about”: LC, prose fragments (1 August 1976), LCA.
62 “When I’m not plotting”: LC, prose fragments, LCA.
63 “life is not”: LC in Mackie, Street Life 15.
64 “Bitterly”: LC, prose fragments, (2 August 1976), LCA.
65 “I wanted to go”: LC, Matrix 53.
66 “I came upon texts”: LC, Matrix 53.
67 “How do you”: LC reported by JM 8/26/94.
68 “As long as we”: LC, “Comme un Guerrier,” Throat Cultureój.
69 “very charming and hospitable”: LC, Songtalk 3: 2: 30.
70 “I thought the songs”: LC, Goldmine 19.
71 “He kept a lot of guns”: LC, Throat Culture 63.
72 “I love you, Leonard”: LC, Throat Culture 63.
73 “Dylan blew everybody’s”: Allen Ginsberg in Songtalk 3: 2: 1.
74 “It’s direct and confessional”: LC in Kubernik, “The greatest ones never just sit it out once,” Melody Maker (26 November 1977) 9.
75 “the full flower”: LC in Twigg, Georgia Straight 24.
76 “I know my work”: LC 5/11/94.
77 “The listener could have been”: LC in Hugh Seidman, “Unful’phil’ed: Cohen & Spector’s Looney Tunes,” Crawdaddy (February 1978) 20.
78 “capable of stunning”: Seidman, Crawdaddy 20.
79 “I should get myself”: LC, “Comme un Guerrier,” Throat Culture 64.
80 “Leonard Cohen’s doo-wop”: Rolling Stone (9 February 1978) 93.
81 “Leonard Cohen is for”: Toronto Star (19 November 1977) D5.
82 “Doyen of Doom meets”: Roy Carr, “Doyen of Doom meets Teen Tycoon …” Melody Maker (November 1977) 32.
83 “most significant step”: Ken Waxman, “Rebirth of a Ladies’ Man,” Saturday Night (March 1978) 61.
84 “either greatly flawed”: Rolling Stone (9 February 1978) 95.
85 “She took his much admired”: “Death of A Ladies’ Man,” DLM.
86 “every relationship”: LC in Stephen Williams, “The confessions of Leonard Cohen,” Toronto Life (February 1978) 49.
Chapter 11
1 “I must say”: Anna Porter to JMcCL (10 November 1976), McM.
2 “Leonard Cohen”: Lily Miller, (? November 1976), McM.
3 “I suggest”: LM (? November 1976), McM.
4 “because of language”: anon., (? June? 1977), McM.
5 “His drawings”: LM,? June 1977, McM.
6 “He feels very excited”: LM to JMcCL, 10 August 1977, McM.
7 “This is a grim development”: JMcCL to LM, 10 August 1977, McM.
8 “pulled apart and uptight”: JMcCL to LM, 11 August 1977, McM.
9 “says he is re-writing”: JMcCL to LM, 11 August 1977, McM.
10 “He says he is writing”: JMcCL to LM, 11 August 1977, McM.
11 “I DOUBT THAT”: LC to JMCCL, 18 August 1977, MCM.
12 LEONARD THERE IS NO SWEAT : JMCCL to LC, 19 August 1977, MCM.
13 “where we are heading”: JMcCL to LC, 11 October 1977, McM.
14 “Christ, Leonard”: JMcCL in Sandra Martin, “Don’t be impatient: Leonard Cohen will let you see his new poems. Eventually,” Saturday Night (November 1977) 30.
15 “If Leonard were”: JMcCL in Saturday Night (November 1977) 35.
16 “bulk and elegance”: LM to JMcCL, 7 July 1978, McM. Miller had met with the elusive Cohen in Montreal on 6 July 1978 to solve many of the production issues.
17 “astonishing”: Sam Ajzenstat, “The ploy’s the thing,” Books in Canada (October 1978) 10.
18 “coldly received in all circles”: LC in Goldmine 19.
19 “marriage is a monastery”: LC in Stephen Williams, “The Confessions of Leonard Cohen,” Toronto Life (February 1978) 61. In DLM Cohen writes “This is the monastery of marriage” (153).
20 “the hottest furnace”: LC in Williams, Crawdaddy (March 1975) 51.
21 “the quality of smoke”: LC in Jeani Read, “Leonard Cohen: A Much Bigger Man than He Appears,” Vancouver Province (27 October 1978) 15.
22 “Irving Layton”: “Dedication,” RS. “I owe my thanks to”: “Dedication,” RS.
23 “the pasture of this world”: Kakuan, “10 Bulls,” tr. Nyogen Senzaki and Paul Reps in Paul Reps, Zen Flesh, Zen Bones (Rutland, Vt.: Charles E. Tuttle & Co., 1957) 168.
24 “forms of integration”: Zen Flesh, Zen Bones 184.
25 “an ideal musical idiom”: “Leonard Cohen—Reaching for the Right Idiom,” Janet Maslin, NYT (18 November 1978) E30.
26 “everybody on tour”: LC in Dorman 310.
27 “the confusion of seriousness”: LC in Dorman 311.
28 “He has the same”: LC in Stephen Godfrey, “A New Artistic Twist for Pied Piper Poet,” Globe and Mail (1 March 1980) El.
29 “I think it’s a beautiful”: LC, Globe and Mail El.
30 “a classic, a grostesque masterpiece”: LC, Globe and Mail El.
31 “destined to be”: John Monks in The Australian, Dorman 314–15.
32 “I never got out”: LC in Dorman 316.
33 “it didn’t seem”: LC in Globe and Mail El.
34 “The song seized me”: LC in Harry Rasky, “The Song of Leonard Cohen,” CBC–tv, 1980.
35 “a new spirit in my work”: LC, “The Song of Leonard Cohen.”
36 “Genius”: IL, “The Song of Leonard Cohen.”
37 “the gift of anxiety”: IL, “The Song of Leonard Cohen.”
38 “I wandered away from you”: LC, tape (1980), LCA.
39 “a wandering monk”: Steve Sanfield 10/3/94.
40 “Zero is activity”: Joshu Sasaki Roshi, “Questions and Answers,” The Great Celebration (Los Angeles: Rinzai-ji, Inc. 1992) 64–65.
41 “As long as we see”: Roshi in Sanfield, Zen and Hasidism 227.
42 “through realizing oneself”: Roshi, “The Nature of Zero,” Zero III: 12.
43 “everything is oneself”: Roshi, Zero 13.
44 “is the possession of”: Roshi, Zero 14.
45 “After you realize”: Roshi quoted by LC 5/10/94.
46 “Roshi saw that I knew”: LC 5/10/94.
47 “I am not a Buddhist”: LC in Dorman 316.
48 “for the truly lost”: NB 12/29/94.
49 “My father and mother”: LC, Hollywood Reporter (25 October 1993), LCA.
50 “If you see”: LC in Christof Graf, “Cohen in Nazi-Land,” Take This Waltz 94.
51 “One more star”: LC 11/14/94.
52 “dig in”: LC 5/11/94.
53 “diligent application”: LC 5/11/94.
54 “a combination of”: LC in Stephen Holden, “Leonard Cohen Brings Back His Blues,” NYT (3 May 1985) 22.
55 “reminiscent of the sixties”: Variety (22 May 1985) 26.
56 “a kind of carousel”: LC in Kate Daller, “I Am A Hotel,” Starweek (5–12 May 1984) 4.
57 “My personal life is such”: Daller, Starweek 4.
58 “must assume”: LC 5/11/94.
59 “I like to get up”: LC 5/11/94.
60 “get down”: LC, [#13], BM, n.p.
61 “I was silenced”: LC in Alan Twigg, “Leonard Cohen,” Strong Voices: Conversations with Fifty Canadian Writers (Maderia Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 1988) 45.
62 “the courage to write down”: LC in Twigg, Strong Voices 46.
63 “inspired or it isn’t”: Mirolla, Montreal Gazette (12 May 1984) I 2.
64 “It came from an intense desire”: LC, “Comme un Guerrier,” Throat Culture 64.
65 “Broken in the unemployment”: [#12], BM.
66 “It’s a tricky thing”: LC, Quill and Quire (May 1984) 5.
67 “Everyone is in some kind of fix”: LC, Q & Q (May 1984) 5.
68 “We’re such a hip age”: LC in Twigg, Strong Voices 46.
69 “May it therefore”: Mahzor for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur (NY: Rabbinical Assembly, 1972) 407.
70 “I had no idea”: LC, Songtalk 3: 2: 28.
71 “I bought”: LC in Richard Guillatt, “Leonard Cohen” The Magazine, Sunday Times (12 December 1993) 64.
72 “I don’t know why”: LC, Sunday Times 64.
73 “The initial thing”: Liam Lacey, “Leonard in Winter,” Globe and Mail (27 November 1993) EI.
74 “I left everybody”: “The Law,” VP.
75 “We were locked”: “The Night Comes On,” VP.
76 “people who can’t sing”: LC, National Public Radio (1 May 1985).
77 “the tomb of the Unknown”: LC in Ashley Collie, “Leonard Cohen, Old Skin for the New Ceremony,” Canadian Musician VII (August 1985) 44.
78 “Sinner”: LC, Pete Fornetell, “Mixed Bag,” WNEW (NYC), 5 May 1985.
79 “an old veteran:” LC in Jeffrey Ressner, “Leonard Cohen,” Hollywood Reporter (14 June 1985) 10.
Chapter 12
1 “deep rescue”: Jennifer Warnes 5/13/94.
2 “Leonard made sure”: JW 5/13/94.
3 “Leonard’s tours”: JW 5/13/94.
4 “This is horrible”: JW 5/13/94.
5 “I knew”: JW 5/13/94.
6 “And I thank you”: “First We Take Manhattan,” IYM.
7 “It has been”: LC in Steve Lakes, “The Grocer of Despair, Leonard Cohen,” Münchner Stadt Zeitung 14 (1987) 29.
8 “pry open”: JW in, “Songs from the Life of Leonard Cohen,” Omnibus, BBC TV 1988.
9 “the place where God and sex”: JW in Paul Zollo, “Of Sunlight & Earthquakes, Jennifer Warnes,” Songtalk 3: 1 (1992) 17.
10 “Your most particular answer”: LC, Songtalk 3: 2: 26.
11 “Because of Leonard’s facility”: JW, Songtalk 3: 1: 18.
12 “Her voice”: LC in JW, Songtalk 3: 1: 17.
13 “if you want to hear”: LC in JW, Songtalk 3: 1: 17.
14 “Sharon showed it”: LC in Gregg Quill, “Cohen Finds the Humor in Being Taken Seriously,” Toronto Star (4 May 1988) 12.
15 “I thought we should do”: LC, Howell Llewellyn, “Cohen Goes Surreal in Spain,” Toronto Star (18 October 1986) G3.
16 “No, I’m a famous nobody”: LC, “Cohen Goes Surreal,” Toronto Star G3. “holy condition”: LC in Dorman 355.
17 “It broke down a lot”: Rowland, Musician Magazine 102.
18 “I couldn’t get behind”: LC in Juan Rodriguez. “The Odd Couple, Leonard Cohen and Michel Pagliaro,” Montreal Magazine (March 1990) 38.
19 “Everything is public”: LC in Rowland, Musician Magazine 97.
20 “I have always been touched”: LC at the CBS Records Crystal Globe ceremony, New York (9 March 1988) LCA.
21 “total commitment”: LC, Norwegian Radio, Oslo, 13 February 1988.
22 “demented manifesto”: LC in Siemerling, “A Political Constituency,” Take This Waltz 164.
23 “First we take Manhattan”: LC in Siemerling, Take This Waltz 165.
24 “This waltz, this waltz”: “Take This Waltz,” IYM.
25 “to get at the dramatic depths”: Lorca, Collected Poetry, xl.
26 “ought to be”: Lorca, Collected Poetry, xl.
27 “it caught the mood”: LC in Rowland, Musician Magazine 104.
28 “started off as a song”: LC in Rowland, Musician Magazine 102.
29 “What is my life?”: LC in Rowland, Musician Magazine 102.
30 “make a definite statement”: LC in Rowland, Musician Magazine 104.
31 “necessity to transcend”: LC 5/11/94.
32 “really placed it”: LC 5/11/94.
33 “Well, my friends are gone”: “Tower of Song,” IYM.
34 “I never thought I was”: LC in Rowland, Musician Magazine 119.
35 “Now I know what I am”: LC in Rowland, Musician Magazine 100.
36 “They say the Torah”: LC in Songtalk 3: 2: 27.
37 “I don’t really know”: LC in Brian Cullman, “Sincerely, L. Cohen,” Details (January 1993) 105.
38 “a sardonic last call”: Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail (27 November 1993) El.
39 “it doesn’t sound like music”: LC quoted by Perla Batalla, 5/11/94.
40 “what you have to go for”: LC quoted by Perla Batalla, 5/11/94.
41 “make it like”: LC in Vancouver Province (16 October 1988) 67.
42 “Orbisize”: LC in Vancouver Province (16 October 1988) 67.
43 “what you have to do”: LC in Rodriguez, “The Odd Couple,” Montreal Magazine (March 1990) 38.
44 “I was born like this”: “Tower of Song,” IYM.
45 “I think if”: LC in Rowland, Musician Magazine 95.
46 “I’ve come a long way”: LC in Songtalk 3: 2: 31.
47 “as a tribute to”: Lorna Knight, Let Us Compare Mythologies, Half a Century of Canadian Poetry in English (Ottawa: National Library of Canada, 1989) 5.
48 “links two vital periods”: Knight 5.
49 “poetic voices became”: Knight 5.
50 “romantic lyricism”: Knight 39.
51 “That’s what it’s all about”: LC 5/14/94.
52 “he has no psychic skin”: Sean Dixon 5/11/94.
53 “We would go”: SD 5/11/94.
54 “It’s hell, darling”: LC quoted by SD 5/11/94.
55 “Leonard, you just”: SD 5/11/94.
56 “You can’t say”: SD 5/11/94.
57 “Things are going to slide”: “The Future,” TF.
58 “If you’re pressed”: “Waiting for the Miracle,” TF.
59 “Leonard is one of”: Rebecca De Mornay in David Browne, “7 Reasons Leonard Cohen is the Next-Best Thing to God,” Entertainment Weekly (8 January 1993) 31.
60 “Do you want to know”: “Knowing Rebecca De Mornay like only Leonard Cohen Can,” Interview (June 1993) 81.
61 “Solid gold artists”: LC in Entertainment Weekly (8 January 1993) 31.
62 “Rebecca got wise”: LC in RTE Weekly (20–26 August 1993) 6.
63 “I am trying”: LC in Ian Pearson, “Growing Old Disgracefully,” Saturday Night (March 1993) 49.
64 “one of the most popular”: Citation, Order of Canada, Governor General’s Office, Rideau Hall, Ottawa (16 August 1993).
65 “exposure to [Layton’s] work”: LC, Globe and Mail (25 October 1991) 18.
66 “has never been disloyal”: IL 7/25/94.
Chapter 13
1 “From my balcony”: John Walsh, “Melancholy Baby,” Independent Magazine (8 May 1993) 40.
2 “those soft California stars”: Jack Kerouac, “The Mexican Girl,” The Portable Jack Kerouac 177.
3 “a training in self-reform”: LC 5/11/94; also see LC in Alan Twigg, Georgia Straight 20.
4 “It’s very dangerous”: LC in MOJO (September 1994) 61.
5 “When you rose out”: “The Mist of Pornography,” LCA.
6 “My Life in Art”: DLM 192.
7 “to the painful decision”: LC 12/29/94.
8 “but when I listened”: LC, Songtalk 3: 2:27.
9 “the way I do things”: LC 5/11/94.
10 “And the whole damn place”: “Closing Time,” TF.
11 “A pessimist”: LC in Reuters, “Leonard Cohen enjoying the spotlight,” Vancouver Province (28 December 1993) B7.
12 “Only in a country”: acceptance speech, JUNO Awards, CBC TV 21 March 1993.
13 “gritty realistic voice”: Allen Ginsberg, “Leonard Cohen” Take This Waltz 93.
14 “there is nothing like”: LC in Georgia Straight (9 July 1993) 41.
15 “Leonard Cohen wrapped”: Boston Globe (26 December 1993) A10.
16 “I feel like a soldier”: LC in Paul Cantin, “Citizen Cohen,” Ottawa Sun (28 November 1993) 34.
17 “The implication is”: Ottawa Sun 34.
18 “primitivist, protuberant”: LC in Toronto Star (21 November 1993) Bi.
19 “came up with”: LC in Siemerling, Take This Waltz 154.
20 “could never get around to”: LC in Dev Sherlock, “Leonard Cohen,” Musician Magazine (November 1993) 7.
21 “select the pieces”: LC quoted by NB 2/18/94; 12/29/94.
22 “a book that was good”: J. Lozaw, “Leonard Cohen,” Boston Rock #141 (June 1994) 20.
23 “coherent”: LC 5/11/94.
24 “I’m glad we ran off”: ES in.
25 “I’m glad we got over”: SM 161.
26 “major new book”: Doug Gibson to JMcCL, 11 December 1989, McM.
27 “reflections on his career”: DG to JMcCL, 5 October 1991, McM.
28 “I tried to eliminate”: LC in Lacey, Globe and Mail (12 November 1993) E1.
29 “it’s very agreeable”: LC in Goldmine 56.
30 “I’m really not”: LC in Lozaw, Boston Rock 20.
31 “the final pages”: LC RTE Guide 6.
32 “the voice”: LC, RTE Guide 6.
33 “This glum”: David Hiltbrand, “Cohen Live,” People 42 (4 July 1994) [19].
34 “I only drink professionally”: LC, RTE Guide 6.
35 “a Tibetan fairy tale”: LC 12/29/94.
36 “I respect the book”: LC, “Morningside,” CBC Radio, 13 December 1994.
37 “the event itself”: LC, “Morningside,” 13 December 1994.
38 “I was ready”: LC 12/29/94.
39 “I remember when”: LC 12/29/94.
40 “On the path of loneliness”: LC, Globe and Mail (4 June 1994) C10; PEN Canadian Travel Anthology, ed. Rooke 55.
41 “a ponderous mind”: LC in James Adams, “Dancing in the Tower of Song,” Globe and Mail (3 August 1995) A9.
42 “I am very happy”: LC, “Press Release,” A&M Records, August 1995.
43 “A quill in his teeth”: Tom Robbins, “Tom Robbins Considers the Man in the Tower,” TS [1] [3], [5] [10].
44 “In Search of Optimism”: Rod Usher, “In Search of Optimism,” Time (25 September 1995) 72.
45 “there is a crack”: “Anthem,” TF.
46 “when [love] can be assimilated”: LC in Anjelica Huston, “Leonard Cohen,” Interview (November 1995) 92, 90.
47 “Nowadays my only need”: LC in Merja Asikainen, “Leonard Cohen,” Ilta-Sanomat (14 October 1995) 14, in Finnish; for English summary see Jarkko Arjatsalo, “Everybody Knows,” Intensity 9 (December 1995) [15].
48 “With him there’s no sense”: LC in James Adams, “Dancing to the Tower of Song,” Globe and Mail (3 August 1995) A 10.
49 “I love it, Man”: LC in MOJO (September 1994) 59.
50 “survival”: LC 5/11/94.
51 “For me”: LC 5/11/94.
52 “[Zen] has a kind of”: LC, “Morningside,” 13 December 1994.
53 “the crumbs of love”: “Avalanche,” SLH.
54 “I’ll rise up”: “My Honour,” SM 394.
55 “I find that my life”: LC, BRAVO TV, 31 August 1995.