Leonard Cohen Speaks

How I Got My Song

This is the most gracious speech I have ever heard. Leonard Cohen, in this particular moment, is the embodiment of gratitude, kindness and humility. I would like to live my life in the place he was at upon receiving the Prince of Asturias award. Wow.

I find is amazing that a man who couldn’t play the guitar and couldn’t sing — at least according to the traditional standards of our time — was able to move millions of people with his music.

Plus he lived for five years as a Zen monk late in life. (See video link below).

Here are a few excerpts from his Prince of Asturias acceptance speech:

“Poetry comes from a place that no one commands and no one conquers.”

“If I knew where the good songs came from I’d go there more often.”

“You are an old man and you have not said thank you. You have not brought gratitude back to the soil from which this fragrance arose.”