I think there are people that make their work beautiful in a way that they can never make their lives or their bodies beautiful. I mean I know Janis Joplin, you know, she was that classic pop star, as embodied by the rose in that movie, she really would sing to 20 or 30 thousand people who were drooling at her feet and you know, I’d see her wandering around the Chelsea Hotel at 3 in the morning trying to find you know somebody to have a cup of coffee with. So how do you reconcile those things? I don’t know. She stood for something beautiful and nervous and high, and surrendered completely, and yet she couldn’t have those things, she couldn’t manifest simple things, simple beautiful things in her own life, that’s really what I mean.

Leonard Cohen

From How The Heart Approaches What It Yearns – Interview With Leonard Cohen Presented By John McKenna. RTE Ireland, May 9 & 12, 1988. Photo of Janis Joplin by Columbia Records (Billboard page 5) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Also See:

• Leonard Cohen On Janis Joplin, The Study Of Lyrics, & The Difficulties Of Being A Pop Star
• “You kind of knew that the candle was burning at both ends and she probably wouldn’t make it” Leonard Cohen On Janis Joplin & Drugs
• “I remember [Janis Joplin] there, sitting in front of a mirror, saying ‘Leonard, why don’t you try this?’ I said, ‘Listen, I don’t need that stuff.'” Leonard Cohen Performs Chelsea Hotel #2 – Copenhagen 1985
• Leonard Cohen, Janis Joplin, & The Chelsea Hotel: What He Said – And Now, What She Said
• “A long time ago in an elevator in New York City, I met a very great, young American singer; after she died I wrote this song for her” Leonard Cohen Performs Chelsea Hotel #2, Laments “Dreaded Feedback,” Threatens BMI – Bonn 1980

I am republishing selected posts from my former Leonard Cohen site, Cohencentric, here on AllanShowalter.com (these posts can be found at Leonard Cohen). This entry was originally posted Dec 3, 2013 at DrHGuy.com, a predecessor of Cohencentric.