Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man

Leonard Cohen:
Sometimes, when you no longer see yourself as the hero of your own drama, expecting victory after victory, and you understand deeply that this is not paradise... somehow we're, especially the privileged ones that we are, we somehow embrace the notion that this veil of tears, that it's perfectable, that you're going to get it all straight. I've found that things became a lot easier when I no longer expected to win.

Leonard Cohen:
There is a beautiful moment in the Bhagavad Gita Arjuna. The general. The great general. He's standing in his chariot. And all the chariots are readied for war. And across the valley, he sees his opponents. And there he sees not just uncles and aunts and cousins, he sees gurus, he sees teachers that have taught him; and you know how the Indians revere that relationship. He sees them. And Krishna, one of the expressions of the deity, says to him, "you'll never untangle the circumstances that brought you to this moment. You're a warrior. Arise now, mighty warrior." With the full understanding, that they've already been killed, and so have you. "This is just a play. This is my will. You're cuaght up in the circumstances that I determine for you. That you did not determine for yourself. So, arise, you're a noble warrior. Embrace your destiny, your fate, and stand up and do your duty."

Leonard Cohen:
[explaining his song, "The Traitor"] It was about the feeling that we have of betraying some mission that we were mandated to fulfill, and being unable to fulfill it. And then coming to understand that the real mandate was not to fulfill it, and that the deeper courage, was to stand guiltless in the predicament in which you found yourself

Leonard Cohen:
For many years, I was known as a monk, I shaved my head and wore robes, got up very early. I hated everyone but I acted generously, and no one found me out. My reputation as a ladies man was a joke. It caused me to laugh bitterly through the 10,000 nights I spent alone.