“I have tried in my way to be free.”

—  Leonard Cohen

Last update May 7, 2019. History

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Leonard Cohen photo
Leonard Cohen 169
Canadian poet and singer-songwriter 1934–2016

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“Like a bird on the wire,
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I have tried in my way to be free.”

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“I have tried so far as I can to lead this country into the way of evolutionary progress, but I have tried to warn it against revolutionary progress, and I have tried to bring about a unity of spirit in the nation.”

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Context: I have tried so far as I can to lead this country into the way of evolutionary progress, but I have tried to warn it against revolutionary progress, and I have tried to bring about a unity of spirit in the nation. I have done that, not only because it is right in itself, but because one watches this country becoming year by year more urbanised, more industrialised, and the potential dangers to this country becoming greater and greater lest at any time and in any way her communications, the constant flow of food and of raw materials, might ever be interrupted. Her life is an artificial life, and anything that tends to upset it, to break those cords and those strings, might ruin our country in a thousandth part of the time it has taken to build it up.

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“I am a Canadian, a free Canadian, free to speak without fear, free to worship God in my own way, free to stand for what I think right, free to oppose what I believe wrong, free to choose those who shall govern my country. This heritage of freedom I pledge to uphold for myself and all mankind.”

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Source: [Виталий Кличко ответил на вопросы читателей Корреспондент.net, https://korrespondent.net/ukraine/politics/386098-vitalij-klichko-otvetil-na-voprosy-chitatelej-korrespondent-net, 2022-06-13, korrespondent.net, ru]

“I have attempted to develop my thinking in such a way that the work I've done is not me – not to confuse my feelings with what I produced. I didn't want my work to be an exposure of my feelings. Abstract Expressionism was so lively – personal identity and painting were more or less the same, and I tried to operate the same way. But I found I couldn't do anything that would be identical with my feelings. So I worked in such a way that I could say that it's not me. That accounts for the separation.”

Jasper Johns (1930) American artist

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