Actually I started playing the guitar in 1950, when I spent a summer at a socialist summer camp near Montreal. I really liked the people there because they were the only ones who were interested in songs as a form of self-expression, as people’s music. In my opinion, my music originates from people, but many of my critics certainly disagree – they tend to classify it as elite or intellectual. I have never planned or intended it to be that way.

Leonard Cohen

From ”En tunne vanhenevani lainkaan” – Leonard Cohen Soundissa 1976: The 2016 reprint of a June 1976 Leonard Cohen interview by Dougie Gordon. (Soundi: Nov 11, 2016). Via computer translation.