If you were to ask me what so inspires me about Leonard Cohen, I would say that he wrote

so lucidly about mystery. In other words, a six-year-old child could understand it, and

yet it's about everything that we can't begin to fathom.

This is Death, Sex, and Money. The show from WNYC about the things we think about a lot.

I need to talk about more. I may not say it.

When I reached writer Pico Iyer at his home in Japan, it was late afternoon where I was,

and early morning, the next day, for Pico.

If you were going to turn on a Leonard Cohen song this morning to listen to, what song would

you pick? I've already answered that, Anna, because I did so with If It Be Your Will.

And that's almost the prayer that I begin every important conversation with. Takes me to

the deepest and quietest part of myself.

If It Be Your Will, let us be no more, and my voice be still, as it was before.

Almost every single word, a monocleable, and yet it gets to a place that we can't begin

to explain.

Leonard Cohen died in 2016, but he's with Pico most mornings. Pico was a long-time fan

of the singer-songwriter, and then the two became close friends in the last 20 years of

Cohen's life.

Pico Iyer has written more than a dozen books about travel, stillness, and spirituality.

His latest, the Half-None Life, is a chronicle of his visits to holy sites and sacred places.

And we started our conversation, talking about when he first met Leonard Cohen at one

sacred place, at a monastery outside of Los Angeles, where Cohen eventually stayed for

five years, after decades of living like a rock star.

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