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Who Could Have Foretold The Heart Grows Old From Touching Others

-Leonard Cohen

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Who Could Have Foretold

Leonard Cohen

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Who Could Have Foretold The Heart Grows Old From Touching Others

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When We Are Touched By A Song, It Is Because The Artist Cannot Hide Himself.

You Can Do Anything You Want To [ In Ashram] If You Can Find The Time. It's A Very Rigorous Day. It Starts At 2:30 In The Morning And Often Doesn't End Until Midnight, So If You Can Actually Find A Moment To Have A Drink Or A Smoke, You're Quite Welcome To, As Long As It Doesn't Interfere With Your Capacity To Follow The Schedule.

I Want To Be Paid For My Work, Not Work For My Pay.

Your Body Will Never Be Familiar.

Take One Step To The Side And It's All Absurd.

Don't Call Yourself A Secret Unless You Mean To Keep It.

It's True That All The Men You Knew Were Dealers Who Said They Were Through With Dealing Every Time You Gave Them Shelter. I Know That Kind Of Man It's Hard To Hold The Hand Of Anyone Who Is Reaching For The Sky Just To Surrender.

God Is Alive. Magic Is Afoot. God Is Alive. Magic Is Afoot. God Is Afoot. Magic Is Alive. Alive Is Afoot. Magic Never Died. God Never Sickened. Many Poor Men Lied. Many Sick Men Lied. Magic Never Weakened. Magic Never Hid. Magic Always Ruled. God Is Afoot. God Was Ruler Though His Funeral Lengthened. Though His Mourners Thickened Magic Never Fled.

After A While, If You Are Sufficiently Bored Or Unemployed, You May Want To Read It From Cover To Cover.

I Would Say The Hummingbird Really Deserves The Royalties On [some Of My Songs].

In My Secret Life" "i Saw You This Morning, You Were Moving So Fast. Can't Seem To Loosen My Grip On The Past. And I Miss You So Much, There's No One In Sight. And We're Still Making Love In My Secret Life. I Smile When I Am Angry, I Cheat And I Lie, I Do What I Have To Do To Get By, In My Secret Life.

What Were The Bodies Like On The Beach? Ugly And White And Ruined By Offices.

Silence And A Deeper Silence When The Crickets Hesitate

And Most People Have A Woman In Their Heart, Most Men Have A Woman In Their Heart And Most Women Have A Man In Their Heart.

My Two Great Heroes Are W. B. Yeats And Federico Garcia Lorca.

Journalists, Especially English Journalists, Were Very Cruel To Me. They Said I Only Knew Three Chords When I Knew Five!

In Dreams The Truth Is Learned That All Good Works Are Done In The Absence Of A Caress.

If You Don't Become The Ocean, You'll Be Seasick Every Day.

It Doesn't Matter What You Do Because It's Going To Happen Anyway.

Now I've Heard There Was A Secret Chord That David Played, And It Pleased The Lord But You Don't Really Care For Music, Do You? It Goes Like This The Fourth, The Fifth The Minor Fall, The Major Lift The Baffled King Composing Hallelujah

May Everyone Live, And May Everyone Die. Hello, My Love, And My Love, Goodbye.

I Am Not The One Who Loves - It's Love That Chooses Me. When Hatred With His Package Comes, You Forbid Delivery...

I Don't Have A Television Set Up [in The Mountains], Of Course, But I Find I Don't Miss It At All, Or The Newspaper. I've Sneaked A Radio Into By Cabin, But I Find I Turn It On Very Rarely.

I Swear By This Song And By All That I Have Done Wrong, I Will Make It All Up To Thee.

To Every People The Land Is Given On Condition. Perceived Or Not, There Is A Covenant, Beyond The Constitution, Beyond Sovereign Guarantee, Beyond The Nation's Sweetest Dreams Of Itself.

Your Heart Opens And Of Course You're Completely Panicked Because You're Used To Guarding This Organ With Your Life.

... I Didn't Fall In Love Of Course It's Never Up To You But She Was Walking Back And Forth And I Was Passing Through

Falling In Love

You Who Build These Altars Now To Sacrifice These Children , You Must Not Do It Anymore. A Scheme Is Not A Vision And You Never Have Been Tempted By A Demon Or A God .

Only In Canada Could Somebody With A Voice Like Mine Win 'vocalist Of The Year'.

This Mental Space Is Occupied And Everything Is Mine.

Coroner's Inquest: Death By Drowning. And He Hasn't Been To The Sea-shore In Ten Years.

How Can I Begin Anything New With All Of Yesterday In Me?

He Can Love The Shape Of Human Beings, The Fine And Twisted Shapes Of The Heart. It Is Good To Have Among Us Such Men, Such Balancing Monsters Of Love.

It's The Notion That There Is No Perfection - That There Is A Broken World And We Live With Broken Hearts And Broken Lives But Still There Is No Alibi For Anything. On The Contrary, You Have To Stand Up And Say Hallelujah Under Those Circumstances.

We All Are Motivated By Deep Impulses And Deep Appetites To Serve, Even Though We May Not Be Able To Locate That Which We Are Hoping To Serve. So This Is Just A Part Of My Nature And I Think Everybody Else's Nature To Offer Oneself At The Critical Moment When The Emergency Becomes Articulate. It's Only Then That We Can Locate That Willingness To Serve.

Critical Moments

The Big Change Is The Proximity To Death.

There's No Concession To The Fact That Dylan Might Be A More Sophisticated Singer Than Whitney Houston, That He's Probably The Most Sophisticated Singer We've Had In A Generation. Nobody Is Identifying Our Popular Singers Like A Matisse Or Picasso. Dylan's A Picasso - That Exuberance, Range, And Assimilation Of The Whole History Of Music.

I'd Written A Lot Of Songs With Hummingbirds In Them. None Of Them Ever Came To Anything, But I Did Write A Few Lines Last Month. It Went Like This: 'listen To The Hummingbird Whose Wings You Cannot See. Listen To The Hummingbird, Don't Listen To Me'.

I've Never Thought Of Myself As A Religious Person.

Religious Person

I Dreamed About You Baby. It Was Just The Other Night. Most Of You Was Naked Ah, But Some Of You Was Light.

If You're Squeezed For Information, / That's When You've Got To Play It Dumb: / You Just Say You're Out There Waiting / For The Miracle, For The Miracle To Come.

Seriousness Is The Deepest Pleasure We Have.

Love Is A Fire/it Burns Everyone/it Disfigures Everyone/it Is The World's Excuse For Being Ugly.

I Couldn't Feel So I Learned To Touch.

She Was Made Of Flesh And Eyelashes.

Now Suzanne Takes You Hand And She Leads You To The River She Is Wearing Rags And Feathers From Salvation Army Counters And The Sun Pours Down Like Honey On Our Lady Of The Harbour And She Shows You Where To Look Among The Garbage And The Flowers There Are Heroes In The Seaweed There Are Children In The Morning They Are Leaning Out For Love And They Will Lean That Way Forever While Suzanne Holds The Mirror And You Want To Travel With Her And You Want To Travel Blind And You Know That She Will Trust You For Shes Touched Your Perfect Body With Her Mind.

Everybody Knows That The Dice Are Loaded, Everybody Rolls With Their Fingers Crossed, Everybody Knows That The War Is Over, Everybody Knows The Good Guys Lost.

A Saint Is Someone Who Has Achieved A Remote Human Possibility. It Is Impossible To Say What That Possibility Is. I Think It Has Something To Do With The Energy Of Love.

I Think That Any Songwriter - And I Think That Bob Dylan Knows This More Than All Of Us - You Don't Write The Songs Anyhow.

Well I See You There With The Rose In Your Teeth One More Thin Gypsy Thief... Yes, And Thanks, For The Trouble You Took From Her Eyes I Thought It Was There For Good So I Never Tried... And Jane Came By With A Lock Of Your Hair She Said That You Gave It To Her That Night That You Planned To Go Clear.

We All Need That Experience Of Forgetting Who You Are. Forgetting Who You Are Is Such A Delicious Experience And So Frightening That We're In This Conflicted Predicament.

Well, I've Been Waiting, I Was Sure We'd Meet Between The Trains We're Waiting For I Think It's Time To Board Another Please Understand, I Never Had A Secret Chart To Get Me To The Heart Of This Or Any Other Matter

Most Of Our Distractions Are Designed To Invite Us Away From This Recognition, Which Is A Good Idea.

All Men Will Be Sailors Then Until The Sea Shall Free Them

Undertow" "i Set Out One Night When The Tide Was Low There Were Signs In The Sky But I Did Not Know I'd Be Caught In The Grip Of The Undertow Ditched On A Beach Where The Sea Hates To Go With A Child In My Arms And A Chill In My Soul And My Heart The Shape Of A Begging Bowl

It Is Painful To Recall A Past Intensity, To Estimate Your Distance From The Belsen Heap, To Make Your Peace With Numbers. Just To Get Up Each Morning Is To Make A Kind Of Peace.

Even Damnation Is Poisoned With Rainbows.

And May My Bronze Name / Touch Always Her Thousand Fingers / Grow Brighter With Her Weeping / Until I Am Fixed Like A Galaxy / And Memorized / In Her Secret And Fragile Skies.

Every Heart To Love Will Come, But Like A Refugee

I Greet You From The Other Side Of Sorrow And Despair, With A Love So Vast And Shattered It Will Reach You Everywhere.

We Are Awakening From The Dream Of Isolation, From The Dream Of Loneliness, And It's A Terrible Shock.

It Was A Dance Of Masks And Every Mask Was Perfect Because Every Mask Was A Real Face And Every Face Was A Real Mask So There Was No Mask And There Was No Face For There Was But One Dance In Which There Was But One Mask But One True Face Which Was The Same And Which Was A Thing Without A Name Which Changed And Changed Into Itself Over And Over.

There Is A War Between The Ones Who Say There Is A War And The Ones Who Say There Isn't.

You Can Keep The Body As Well-oiled And Receptive As Possible, But Whether You're Actually Going To Be Able To Go For The Long Haul Is Really Not Your Own Choice.

As Our Eyes Grow Accustomed To Sight They Armour Themselves Against Wonder.

The Less I Was Of Who I Was, The Better I Felt.

I Can't Run No More With That Lawless Crowd While The Killers In High Places Say Their Prayers Out Loud. But They've Summoned, They've Summoned Up A Thundercloud And They're Going To Hear From Me. Ring The Bells That Still Can Ring Forget Your Perfect Offering There Is A Crack In Everything That's How The Light Gets In.

Get Ready For The Future: It Is Murder.

You Lose Your Grip, And Then You Slip Into The Masterpiece.

When You Stop Thinking About Yourself All The Time, A Certain Sense Of Repose Overtakes You.

Thinking About You

[patrick Leonard] Is Such A Magnificent Composer. I Don't Think There Is Anybody Working Today With Those Kind Of Skills That Could Translate One Of My Tunes Into That Really Beautiful Chamber Music.

Maybe We, The Cultural Workers , Could Apply Ourselves. We're Not Going To Resolve It In This Moment Or Even In This Generation, But Perhaps As Some Kind Of Agenda We Could Invite Our Writers And Cultural Workers To Address The Problem A Little More Responsibly, Because People Are Suffering Tremendously From A Want Of Data.

[prozac] Didn't Seem To Have Any Effect Whatsoever On My Melancholy, My Dark Vision, And Everything Else That I'd Taken It For.

There Is A Crack In Everything, That's How The Light Gets In.

Today [people] Are Ready To Take Emergency Cures, Whatever They Are, If It's Violence, If It's A Fascination With Serial Killing Or Whatever - The Discomfort Is So Intense. Maybe It's Always Been Like That, Certainly It Is Now.

At The Very Center Of Our Culture Is A Crucified Man, A Tortured Man Hanging On A Cross Of Wood. You Have An Image Of Violence At The Very Center Of Our Spiritual Investigation.

Poetry Is Just The Evidence Of Life. If Your Life Is Burning Well, Poetry Is Just The Ash.

This Civil Action Is Another Case Of A Tragedy That Has Become All Too Familiar In The Music Industry: A Business Manager And Professional Advisers Exploit An Immensely Talented Artist's Loyalty And Trust Through Greed, Self-dealing, Concealment, Knowing Misrepresentation And Reckless Disregard For Professional Fiduciary Duties.

Does Anybody Have A Cigarette? I'm Looking Forward To That First Smoke. I've Been Looking Forward To [it] For About 30 Years.

Ring The Bells That Still Can Ring.

We Used To Play Music For Fun. Much More Than Now. Now Nobody Picks Up A Guitar Unless They're Paid For It.

I Said I Was Ready To Die Recently, And I Think I Was Exaggerating.that Declaration Of Readiness, No Matter What The Outcome, That's A Part Of Everyone's Soul.

All The Lousy Little Poets Coming Around Trying To Sound Like Charles Manson.

If Your Life Is A Leaf That The Seasons Tear Off And Condemn They Will Bind You With Love That Is Graceful And Green As A Stem.

His Vision Was Just Outstanding. If You Think Of Him In The Same Way As Pele Then You Would Come Close.

And Here You Are Hurried, And Here You Are Gone; And Here Is The Love, That It's All Built Upon.

Love Is Not A Victory March

Seven To Eleven Is A Huge Chunk Of Life, Full Of Dulling And Forgetting. It Is Fabled That We Slowly Lose The Gift Of Speech With Animals, That Birds No Longer Visit Our Windowsills To Converse. As Our Eyes Grow Accustomed To Sight They Armor Themselves Against Wonder.

I Lit A Thin Green Candle To Make You Jealous Of Me, But The Room Just Filled Up With Mosquitoes.

I Speak Of A Clinical Depression That Is The Background Of Your Entire Life, A Background Of Anguish And Anxiety, A Sense That Nothing Goes Well, That Pleasure Is Unavailable And All Your Strategies Collapse.

Everytime You Grab At Love You Will Lose A Snowflake Of Your Memory

To Keep Our Hearts Open Is Probably The Most Urgent Responsibility You Have As You Get Older.

Some People, It [songwriting] Comes Faster. Some People, It Comes Slower.

They Ended Every Speech With The Word Hiro, Which Means: Like I Said. Thus Each Man Took Responsibility For Intruding Into The Inarticulate Murmur Of The Spheres. To Hiro They Added The Word Koue, A Cry Of Joy Or Distress, According To Whether It Was Sung Or Howled. Thus They Essayed To Piece The Mysterious Curtain Which Hangs Between All Talking Men: At The End Of Every Utterance A Man Stepped Back, So To Speak, And Attempted To Interpret His Words To The Listener, Attempted To Subvert The Beguiling Intellect With The Noise Of True Emotion.

If You Want A Lover I'll Do Anything You Ask. If You Want A Different Kind Of Love I'll Wear A Mask. If You Want To Strike Me Down In Anger Here I Stand. If You Want A Partner In Life Take My Hand. I'm Your Man.

I've Forgotten Most Of What I've Read And, Frankly, It Never Seemed Very Important To Me Or To The World.

I've Never Thought Of Myself As A Singer Anyway. . . I've Been Free From Those Considerations Because So Many People Over The Years Told Me I Don't Have A Voice. I Kind Of Bought That. I Never Thought That Much About It To Begin With. I Knew I Didn't Have One Of The Great Voices. As My Damon Runyanesque Lawyer Used To Say, "none Of You Guys Can Sing. If I Want To Hear Singing, I'll Go To The Metropolitan Opera."

I Have Often Prayed For You Like This Let Me Have Her

We've Got To Temper Anything We Say With That. On The Other Hand, You've Got To Be Serious About What You Do. And You've Got To Understand The Price You Pay For Frivolity Or Just For Greed - It's A Very High Price, Especially If You're Involved In This Sacred Material, Which Is About The Human Heart And Human Desire And Human Tragedy.

I Listen To The Radio And I Like All Kinds Of Music, You Know, But I Like To Hear From People Who Have Been There. Hank Williams Has Been There.

I Think That All The Spiritual Training Is Just To Be Able To Allow You To Experience This From A Slightly Different Perspective - One That's A Little More Stabilized.

I Am An Old Scholar, Better-looking Now Than When I Was Young. That's What Sitting On Your Ass Does To Your Face.

Show Me Slowly What I Only Know The Limits Of Dance Me To The End Of Love

I Loved You For A Long, Long Time I Know This Love Is Real It Don't Matter How It All Went Wrong That Don't Change The Way I Feel And I Can't Believe That Time's Gonna Heal This Wound I'm Speaking Of There Ain't No Cure For Love

It's Been A Long Time Since I've Stood On A Stage In London. Was About 14 Or 15 Years Ago, I Was 60 Years Old, Just A Kid With A Crazy Dream. Since Then I've Taken A Lot Of Prozac, Paxil, Wellbutrin, Effexor, Ritalin, Focalin. I've Also Studied Deeply In The Philosophies And The Religions, But Cheerfulness Kept Breaking Through.

It’s A Pity If Someone… Has To Console Himself For The Wreck Of His Days With The Notion That Somehow His Voice, His Work Embodies The Deepest, Most Obscure, Freshest, Rawest Oyster Of Reality In The Unfathomable Refrigerator Of The Heart’s Ocean, But I Am Such A One, And There You Have It.

Be With Me In The Phases Of My Work Because My Brain Feels Like It Has Been Whipped And I Yearn To Make A Small Perfect Thing Which Will Live In Your Morning Like Curious Static Through A President's Elegy Or A Nude Hunchback Acquiring A Tan On The Crowded Oily Beach.

Here Is Your Cross, Your Nails And Your Hill; And Here Is Your Love, That Lists Where It Will

Any Startling Piece Of Work Has A Subversive Element In It, A Delicious Element Often. Subversion Is Only Disagreeable When It Manifests In Political Or Social Activity.

I Would Like To Work With Pat [ Leonard] In Any Capacity. I Would Love To Hear His Versions.

Well, For One Thing, In The Tradition Of Zen That I've Practiced, There Is No Prayerful Worship And There Is No Affirmation Of A Deity.

In Our Rags Of Light, All Dressed To Kill.

When Things Get Really Bad, Just Raise Your Glass And Stamp Your Feet And Do A Little Jig. That's About All You Can Do.

The Fact That My Songs Take A Long Time To Write Is No Guarantee Of Their Excellence.

I Felt Like If Any Two People Had Any Kind Of Sexual Affinity For Each Other They Had To Sleep With Each Other Immediately, Otherwise It Was A Terrible Betrayal And Waste...fortunately, I'm Relieved Of Those Obsessions Now. It's Really Wonderful. It's Really Wonderful Not Feeling You Have To Sleep With Everybody.

Although Only One Man May Be Receiving The Favors Of A Woman, All Men In Her Presence Are Warmed. That's The Great Generosity Of Women And The Great Generosity Of The Creator Who Worked It Out Is That There Are No Unilateral Agreements On Sexuality.

Act The Way You'd Like To Be And Soon You'll Be The Way You Act.

And I'll Dance With You In Vienna, I'll Be Wearing A River's Disguise. The Hyacinth Wild On My Shoulder My Mouth On The Dew Of Your Thighs. And I'll Bury My Soul In A Scrapbook, With The Photographs There And The Moss. And I'll Yield To The Flood Of Your Beauty, My Cheap Violin And My Cross.

You Say I Took The Name In Vain I Don't Even Know The Name But If I Did, Well Really, What's It To You? There's A Blaze Of Light In Every Word It Doesn't Matter Which You Heard The Holy Or The Broken Hallelujah

I Bargain Now. I Offer Buttons For His Love.

It's Hard To Be Serious About So Many Things. [look At The Whole Emphasis] On The Charts, If You're A Songwriter.

Poetry Is A Verdict Rather Than An Intention.

Well It's True, Ever Since I Stopped Eating Meat I Feel A Lot Better Among Animals, I Feel I Can Be Much More Honest When I Pat A Dog.

Women Stand For The Objective World For A Man. They Stand For The Thing That You're Not And That's What You Always Reach For In A Song.

Oh The Sisters Of Mercy, They Are Not Departed Or Gone.

I Finally Broke Into The Prison I Found My Place In The Chain Even Damnation Is Poisoned With Rainbows

Except For A Couple Of Hours In The Morning Which I Passed In The Company Of A Sage I Stayed In Bed Without Food Only A Few Mouthfuls Of Water “you Are A Fine Looking Old Man” I Said To Myself In The Mirror “and What Is More You Have The Correct Attitude You Don’t Care If It Ends Or If It Goes On And As For The Women And The Music There Will Be Plenty Of That In Paradise” Then I Went To The Mosque Of Memory To Express My Gratitude

We Do What Only Lovers Can: Make A Gift Out Of Necessity.

The Moon Is Swimming Naked And The Summer Night Is Fragrant With A Mighty Expectation Of Relief.

This Particular School Of Zen Has Always Considered Itself The Marines Of The Spiritual World, So It Has A Kind Of Bias Against Conceptual Thinking In Favor Of A Very Rigorous Physical Life.

There Are A Few Things That Deal With Passion. There's Prozac.

But Remember When I Moved In You And The Holy Dove Was Moving Too And Every Breath We Drew Was Hallelujah.

Like A Bird On A Wire, Like A Drunk In A Midnight Choir, I Have Tried In My Way To Be Free!!

It's Like A Bear Stumbling Into A Beehive Or A Honey Cache: I'm Stumbling Right Into It And Getting Stuck, And It's Delicious And It's Horrible And I'm In It And It's Not Very Graceful And It's Very Awkward And It's Very Painful And Yet There's Something Inevitable About It.

I Always Thought That Poetry Is The Verdict That Others Give To A Certain Kind Of Writing. So To Call Yourself A Poet Is A Kind Of Dangerous Description. It's For Others; It's For Others To Use.

The Cutting Of The Gem Has To Be Finished Before You Can See Whether It Shines.

Gift You Tell Me That Silence Is Nearer To Peace Than Poems But If For My Gift I Brought You Silence (for I Know Silence) You Would Say This Is Not Silence This Is Another Poem And You Would Hand It Back To Me

This Is Every Musician's Dream, To Stand In Front Of An Audience And Not Have To Prove Your Credentials.

Suzanne Had A Room On A Waterfront Street In The Port Of Montreal. Everything Happened Just As It Was Put Down. She Was The Wife Of A Man I Knew. Her Hospitality Was Immaculate. Some Months Later I Sang It For Judy Collins Over The Telephone. The Publishing Rights Were Lost In New York City, But It Is Probably Appropriate That I Don't Own This Song. Just The Other Day I Heard Some People Singing It On A Ship In The Caspian Sea.

Dance Me To Your Beauty With A Burning Violin Dance Me Through The Panic 'til I'm Gathered Safely In Lift Me Like An Olive Branch And Be My Homeward Dove Dance Me To The End Of Love

I Always Loved Those Little Creatures [hummingbird], Always Feel Blessed When They Appear Nearby. There's A Magical Quality To Them. I Finally Put One In A Song.

Other People Singing My Songs Is Something That I've Never Been Casual About. I've Always Been Very Touched By It And I Always Go Into Immediate Critical Suspension.

It's Four In The Morning, The End Of December I'm Writing You Now Just To See If You're Better.

And Clenching Your Fist For The Ones Like Us Who Are Oppressed By The Figures Of Beauty.

Maybe The Culture Is [particularly] Shabby Now. Maybe It's Because I'm Over Sixty, That I Can Feel That About Everything.

A Community Is An Alibi For The Failure Of Individual Love.

Yes, You Who Must Leave Everything That You Cannot Control, It Begins With Your Family, And Soon It Comes Round To Your Soul. Well I've Been Where You're Hanging, I Think I Can See How You're Pinned: When You're Not Feeling Holy Your Loneliness Says That You've Sinned.

I Think What We Like About Music - And What We Like About Art In General....is That Enterprise That Stops Our Minds From Spinning. Because We're Always All Over The Place. A Good Song, A Good Lyric Is A Movie: It Will Just Focus And Calm And Confer Significance On This Completely Bewildering Reality That All Of Us Live In.

Your Hair Upon The Pillow Like A Sleepy Golden Storm

I Found That Things Became A Lot Easier When I No Longer Expected To Win. You Abandon Your Masterpiece And Sink Into The Real Masterpiece.

Just To Get Serious About This Thing, You Know. One Has To Be Compassionate. It's True That People Are Up Against Things, Economically And Emotionally.

Now, I Don't Want To Give You The Impression That I'm A Great Musicologist, But I'm A Lot Better Than What I Was Described As For A Long, Long Time; You Know, People Said I Only Knew Three Chords When I Knew Five.

I Cannot Understand Why My Arm Is Not A Lilac Tree.

As The Mist Leaves No Scar On The Dark Green Hill So My Body Leaves No Scar On You And Never Will

A Man Never Got A Woman Back... Not By Begging On His Knees.

Something I Wrote Quite A Few Years Ago Was, "the Voices In My Head, They Don't Care What I Do, They Just Want To Argue The Matter Through And Through." It Is A Common Mistake, To Think You're Going To Go Into Some Kind Of Spiritual Practice And You're Going To Be Relieved Of The Human Burdens, From Human Crosses Like Thought, Jealousy, Despair - In Fact, If Anything, These Feelings Are Amplified.

What Is Most Original In A Man's Nature Is Often That Which Is Most Desperate. Thus New Systems Are Forced On The World By Men Who Simply Cannot Bear The Pain Of Living With What Is. Creators Care Nothing For Their Systems Except That They Be Unique. If Hitler Had Been Born In Nazi Germany He Wouldn't Have Been Content To Enjoy The Atmosphere.

I Don't Even Hate Books Anymore.

..you Wanted To Be The Superman Who Was Never Clark Kent

Any Of The Decisions That I Made, If One Could Actually Locate A Shape Or Form, Were All Within A Wall, The Landscape Of Music.

Lift Me Like An Olive Branch And Be My Homeward Dove Dance Me To The End Of Love.

I'm Planning A Catastrophe.

A Sip Of Wine, A Cigarette, And Then It’s Time To Go. I Tidied Up The Kitchenette; I Tuned The Old Banjo. I’m Wanted At The Traffic-jam. They’re Saving Me A Seat.

I Have Nothing Against The Queen Of England. Even In My Heart I Never Resented Her For Not Being Jackie Kennedy. She Is, To My Mind, A Very Gallant Lady, Victimized By Whoever It Is Who Designs The Tops Of Her Uniforms.

I Don't Remember Lighting This Cigarette And I Don't Remember If I'm Here Alone Or Waiting For Someone.

There Are No Letters In The Mailbox And There Are No Grapes Upon The Vine And There Are No Chocolates In Your Boxes Anymore And There Are No Diamonds In The Mine

Music Is The Emotional Life Of The Most People.

Out Of The Thousands Who Are Known Or Who Want To Be Known As Poets, Maybe One Or Two Are Genuine And The Rest Are Fakes, Hanging Around The Sacred Precincts, Trying To Look Like The Real Thing.

Who Could Have Foretold The Heart Grows Old From Touching Others

I Have To Finish It In Order To Know Whether It Deserves To Survive.

If You're Lucky, You Can Keep The Vehicle Healthy And Responsive Over The Years. If You're Lucky, Your Own Intentions Have Very Little To Do With This.

Why Don't You Try To Do Without Him, Why Don't You Try To Live Alone? Do You Really Need His Hands For Your Passion? Do You Really Need His Heart For Your Throne? Do You Need His Labor For Your Baby? Do You Need His Beast For The Bone? Do You Need To Hold A Leash To Be A Lady? I Know That You Can Make It, You Can Make It On Your Own.

[europe Has] This Tradition Of Self Revelation In Popular Music. We Have It Here - It's Called Country Western Music... I Think That's Where The Deeper And More Complex Subjects Are Treated.

He Knew That Hair Couldn't Feel; He Kissed Her Hair.

No One Masters The Heart.

I Try To Make Those References. I Try To Make Sure That They're Not Too Obscure. But Outside Of That, I Dare Not Claim Anything In The Spiritual Realm For My Own.

Friend, When You Speak This Carefully I Know It Is Because You Don't Know What To Say.

Deprivation Is The Mother Of Poetry.

I Do Cherish Those Moments When I Can Just Relax In The Hotel Room. Because There Are A Lot Of Details That Have To Be Taken Care Of Aside From Just Getting Up Onstage. You're Dealing With A Number Of Human Beings Whose Well-being And Safety You're Concerned About. There Are People I Like To Meet And Talk To In The Crew And The Band.

Well, You Know, There's Depression And Depression. What I Mean By Depression In My Own Case Is That Depression Isn't Just The Blues. It's Not Just Like I Have A Hangover In The Weekend ... The Girl Didn't Show Up Or Something Like That. It Isn't That. It's Not Really Depression, It's A Kind Of Mental Violence Which Stops You From Functioning Properly From One Moment To The Next. You Lose Something Somewhere And Suddenly You're Gripped By A Kind Of Angst Of The Heart And Of The Spirit.

Some People Are Graced With A Flow; Some People Are Graced With Something Less Than A Flow. I'm One Of Those.

Dream After Dream We All Lie In Each Other's Arms

Shouldering Your Loneliness Like A Gun That You Will Not Learn To Aim, You Stumble Into This Movie House Then You Climb, You Climb Into The Frame.

We Are So Small Between The Stars, So Large Against The Sky.

Rust Rust Rust In The Engines Of Love And Time.

I Never Really Liked Poetry Readings; I Liked To Read Poetry By Myself, But I Liked Singing, Chanting My Lyrics To This Jazz Group.

It's Inappropriate For An Elderly Chap To Register, You Know, Authentically, His Feelings, You Know, Because They Really Can Be Interpreted. So You Have To Get Quite Covert As You Get Older. Or You Have To Find Some Avuncular Way, You Know, Of Responding.

Like Any Dealer He Was Watching For The Card That Is So High And Wild He'll Never Need To Deal Another. He Was Just Some Joseph Looking For A Manger.

One Is Given To Self-dramatization From Time To Time. I Intend To Live Forever.

You Have Money, Fame, Youth, Beauty, Talent. That's A Good Start... For Feeling Good.

When You've Fallen On The Highway / And You're Lying In The Rain, / And They Ask You How You're Doing / Of Course You'll Say You Can't Complain.

The Psychologists Are Valiantly Trying To Provide Us With Answers, The Religious People Are Trying To Provide Us With Answers. I Think It Properly Falls On The Cultural Workers To Investigate This Predicament With A Little Less Concern For The Marketplace And A Little More Concern For Their Higher Calling.

It Doesn't Matter How Anything Happens.

I Won't Comment On What Bob Dylan Said, But I Will Comment On His Receiving The Nobel Prize, Which To Me Is Like Pinning A Medal On Mount Everest For Being The Highest Mountain.

I Think The Term Poet Is A Very Exalted Term And Should Be Applied To A Man At The End Of His Work. When He Looks Back Over The Body Of His Work And He's Written Poetry Then Let The Verdict Be That He's A Poet.

I've Always Held The Song In High Regard Because Songs Have Got Me Through So Many Sinks Of Dishes And So Many Humiliating Courting Events.

Follow Me, The Wise Man Said, But He Walked Behind.

I'm Never Sure Why I Do Anything, To Tell You The Truth.

And I Had Not Much Of A Voice. I Didn't Play That Great Guitar Either.

I Would Like To Remind The Management That The Drinks Are Watered And The Hat-check Girl Has Syphilis And The Band Is Composed Of Former Ss Monsters However Since It Is New Year's Eve And I Have Lip Cancer I Will Place My Paper Hat On My Concussion And Dance

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Cameron Mackintosh

Charles Babbage

William H. Macy

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