Earlier this week, The New Yorker ran a brilliant profile on Leonard Cohen. Written by editor David Remnick after a number of interviews with Cohen in his Los Angeles home, it showed a man nearing the end, "getting [his] house in order." He said that he was "ready to die."A few days on, with his 14th studio album, You Want It Darker now streaming online ahead of its October 21 release, Cohen seems to feel more alive than ever. Billboard report that, at a listening session for the new record, Cohen was asked how he was feeling. "I said I was ready to die recently," he responded. "And I think I was exaggerating. I've always been into self-dramatization. I intend to live forever"According to Billboard, the session came to an end with Cohen telling the audience, "I hope we can do this again. I intend to stick around until 120."The 82-year-old was also asked about Bob Dylan's odd, charming analysis of Cohen's music in the New Yorker piece. And though Cohen resisted responding directly to Dylan, he did offer some thoughts on his contemporary's Nobel Prize. He believes, simply, that it "is like pinning a medal on Mount Everest for being the highest mountain."It's all very charming, really. Cohen talks about the possibility of new music and living for another four decades and all of a sudden a little of that darkness has lifted. I'll take it.Lead image via Leonard Cohen on Facebook.
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