Billy Joel Quotes

Why should I worry, why should I care? And even when I cross that line, I got street savoire faire. ~ Billy Joel

They're sharing a drink called loneliness, but at least its better than drinking alone. ~ Billy Joel

I respect Billy Joel, but I'm not a guy who's gonna sit down and listen to the entire 'Essential Billy Joel.' ~ Garth Risk Hallberg

You only beat me if you get me to hate. ~ Billy Joel

Rock and roll cola wars, I can't take it any more. ~ Billy Joel

What will it take for you to believe in me, the way that I believe in you? ~ Billy Joel

It's OK if you mess up. You should give yourself a break. ~ Billy Joel

Out of respect for the things that I was never destined to do, I have learned that my strengths are a result of my weaknesses, my success is due to my failures, and my style is directly related to my limitations. ~ Billy Joel

Though you can see when you're wrong, you know you can't always see when you're right. ~ Billy Joel

There's always a place for the angry young man with his fist in the air and his head in the sand. He's never been able to learn from mistakes, he can't understand why his heart always breaks. ~ Billy Joel

You can't go the distance with too much resistance ~ Billy Joel

You'll learn more from your accidents than anything that you could ever learn at school. ~ Billy Joel

I don't know why I go to extremes. ~ Billy Joel

My songs are like my kids. ~ Billy Joel

It feels great to have a #1 album. ~ Billy Joel

In a way, we are magicians. We are alchemists, sorcerers and wizards. We are a very strange bunch. But there is great fun in being a wizard. ~ Billy Joel

Your mother told you all that I could give you was a reputation. ~ Billy Joel

I was listening to stuff and I realized that I've had a lot of different lives. You know the theory [that says] every seven years, you have a different life? I think that's true. ~ Billy Joel

You're a big boy now; you'll never let her go, but that's just the kind of thing she ought to know. Tell her about it. Tell her everything you feel. Giver her every reason to accept that you're for real. ~ Billy Joel

I have long admired Steinway pianos for their qualities of tone, clarity, pitch consistency, touch responsiveness, and superior craftsmanship. ~ Billy Joel

They're sharing a drink they call lonliness, but it's better than drinking alone. ~ Billy Joel

Home can be the Pennsylvania Turnpike
Indiana's early morning dew
High up in the hills of California
Home is just another word for you ~ Billy Joel

I grew up in the '70s, and I hear in my own stuff a lot of what I grew up listening to, which is to say I hear a lot of Billy Joel, Paul McCartney, Carole King, Joni Mitchell and Stevie Wonder. ~ Jason Robert Brown

Hey Lord, would ya look out for her tonight, and make sure that all her dreams are sweet? Said now, would ya guide her on the roads, and make them softer for her feet? Hey Lord, would ya look out for her tonight, and make sure that she's gonna be alright, until she's home and here with me. ~ Billy Joel

Critics have said I write without spontaneity, in cold blood. I don't. I write in hot blood. ~ Billy Joel

I was drawn to boxing because I got beat up as a kid. I was the kid with the piano books in a New York neighbourhood. ~ Billy Joel

There will be other words some other day; that is the story of my life. ~ Billy Joel

My friends and I are crazy. That's the only thing that keeps us sane! ~ Billy Joel

Where have you been hanging out lately honey? You can't dress trashy 'til you spend a lot of money. ~ Billy Joel

You can speak your mind But not on my time. ~ Billy Joel

You just sit home and masturbate. The phone is going to ring soon, but you just can't wait. ~ Billy Joel

music it says all the things that words alone can never say ~ Billy Joel

I am the entertainer, the idol of my age I make all kinds of money when I go on the stage You see me in the papers, I've been in the magazines But if I go cold, I won't get sold I get put in the back in the discount rack Like another can of beans. ~ Billy Joel

Billy Joel and Joe Jackson were both great, and they both play piano. ~ Ben Folds

I watched the mighty skyline fall ~ Billy Joel

Hope you don't think this is Billy Joel unplugged. I'm a piano player. I'm already unplugged. ~ Billy Joel

I was thinking of the Four Seasons, Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, and when I was thinking "Uptown Girl!" I was trying to sing like Frankie Valli. They had a song called "Ragdoll," which was about a poor girl and a rich guy. So I just flipped it around and made it about a rich girl and a poor guy. ~ Billy Joel

I compare songwriting to childbirth. How many kids can you have before your uterus explodes? ~ Billy Joel

You've got yoga, I've got beer. You got overpriced, I got weird. ~ Billy Joel

❝Don't take any shit from anybody.❞ ~ Billy Joel

Historically, musicians know what it is like to be outside the norm - walking the high wire without a safety net. Our experience is not so different from those who march to the beat of different drummers. ~ Billy Joel

Streetlife serenaders Have no obligations Hold no grand illusions Need no stimulation. ~ Billy Joel

I have been both praised and criticized. The criticism stung, but the praise sometimes bothered me even more. To have received such praise and honors has always been puzzling to me. ~ Billy Joel

Let me go on sleeping and I will lose myself in palaces of sand, and all the fantasies that I've been keeping will make the empty hours easier to stand. ~ Billy Joel

I never stopped writing music, I just stopped writing songs. I've been writing music continually ever since the last album of original tunes, "River Of Dreams" in '93. ~ Billy Joel

You look so polished from your hair down to your toes, but still your finger's gonna pick your nose. ~ Billy Joel

I'm a piano player. I never thought of myself as a singer, at all. I was always trying to sound like somebody else. I don't like my own voice, I like Ray Charles, Robert Plant, I like Joe Cocker, Rod Stewart, people that have an edge in their voice. ~ Billy Joel

Twyla Tharp put it together from the material I wrote and recorded over my whole career. I thought it was pretty good, but how objective could I be? ~ Billy Joel

I'm a statistic in a system that a civil servant dominates. ~ Billy Joel

I've always said about 50% of what happens at a concert has to do with the audience. If you play for a dead audience you're gonna stink. If we play for a great crowd we're much better. You want 'em to make noise. It's kinda like sex, if they don't make noise, you ain't doin' it right. ~ Billy Joel

Billy Joel is an incredible musician. He just feels like one of the guys, you know. I grew up listening to his music. ~ Action Bronson

When I started out, I wanted to be Billy Joel. The plan was to be a singer-songwriter of that ilk, and, then, I got waylaid - that's probably an unfair way to say it - from being a rock star by the musical theatre stuff, which I love doing. ~ Jason Robert Brown

I listen to Billy Joel. He is fabulous. I saw him with Elton John when they toured together, it was so great. ~ Marlee Matlin

If you could only hear what I dream. ~ Billy Joel

I've passed the age of consciousness and righteous rage. I found that just surviving was a noble fight. ~ Billy Joel

Every child had a pretty good shot, to get at least as far as their old man got. But something happened on the way to that place. They threw an American flag in our face. ~ Billy Joel

It should be easy for a man who's strong to say he's sorry or admit when he's wrong. ~ Billy Joel

We're only human, we're supposed to make mistakes. ~ Billy Joel

There are people who have lost every trace of human kindness. ~ Billy Joel

I don't want some pretty face to tell me pretty lies, all I want is someone to believe. ~ Billy Joel

You can't criticize Bob Dylan's singing. You have to respect Billy Joel as a brilliant poet. You can't tell me there's a better rock band ever than Led Zeppelin. And if you speak during the Eagles' "Last Resort," we're done. I'm just asking for seven minutes. This stuff really matters, you know. ~ Charlie Sheen

People pay a lot of money to go see shows now, they don't wanna know about your technical problems, or if you're not feeling good, they don't wanna know we have a glitch. It's their night, you better do something to earn that money. ~ Billy Joel

If it seems like I've been lost in 'lets remember', If it seems I'm gettin' older and missin' my younger days, well you shoulda known me much better, cause the past is something that never got in my way. ~ Billy Joel

I've reached the age where competence is a turn-on. ~ Billy Joel

Like family, we are tied to each other. This is what all good musicians understand. ~ Billy Joel

We all have a face that we hide away forever, and we take them out and show ourselves when everyone has gone. ~ Billy Joel

Usually, if I want to just listen to something or sing along to something, I'll put on some Gavin DeGraw or some Billy Joel. Occasionally, if I am feeling vocally in really great shape, I will sing Jean Valjean's soliloquy from 'Les Miz' or something. ~ Josh Young

If I traveled all my life And I never get to stop and settle down Long as I have you by my side There's a roof above and good walls all around You're my castle, you're my cabin and my instant pleasure dome I need you in my house 'cause you're my home. ~ Billy Joel

Don't wait for answers, just take your chances. Don't ask me why. ~ Billy Joel

Call you up in the middle of the night. It's awful hard trying to make love long distance, but I really need stimulation. ~ Billy Joel

I love Billy Joel. I cry sometimes when I hear 'The Stranger.' 'You May Be Right' may be one of the greatest songs ever written. ~ Adam Pally

She'll carelessly cut you and laugh while you're bleeding. ~ Billy Joel

Black and white is how it should be, but shades of grey are the colors I see. ~ Billy Joel

I work with musicians whose opinions I respect and if they don't like something they don't hold back. They'll say, 'That really sucks' and 'You've lost it' and 'You're no good anymore.' And I crawl away with my tail between my legs and I fear that kind of ridicule, but I want them to like the music I'm bringing to them. ~ Billy Joel

She's got a way about her,
And everywhere she goes,
a million dreams of love surround her,
everywhere. ~ Billy Joel

Dylan is so brilliant. To me, he makes William Shakespeare look like Billy Joel. ~ George Harrison

The biggest regret? This may be one of those years I have no regrets. ~ Billy Joel

I've written a bunch of stuff that no one's ever heard, and I don't know if they ever will. I'm just doing it for my own edification. ~ Billy Joel

We are living in a time when American popular music is finally being recognized as one of our most successful exports. The demand is huge. ~ Billy Joel

I actually wrote the song first as "well, it's 9 o'clock on a Saturday." That bit. Then I said, You know what? It needs some kind of an introduction to kind of set the mood and set the flavor. So I just played this kind of cocktail lounge thing, the hustle and bustle of waitresses going by - that kind of thing. ~ Billy Joel

From a town known as Wheeling, West Virginia Rode a boy with a six-gun in his hand And his daring life of crime made him a legend in his time East and west of the Rio Grande. Well, he started with a bank in Colorado In the pocket of his vest a Colt he hid. And his age and his size took the teller by surprise, And the word spread of Billy the Kid. ~ Billy Joel

I'm writing for the sake of writing music. Whether it gets heard or not isn't an issue for me. It keeps my own juices going and my mind active. ~ Billy Joel

When I look at great works of art or listen to inspired music, I sense intimate portraits of the specific times in which they were created. ~ Billy Joel

♪ no one's gonna play this on the radio ♪ Billy Joel

So why's he wasting his time? Because he loves the music, that's why. And he's not wasting his time is he? He's following his dream, doing what he loves. Perhaps if more of us followed our dreams – really followed our own dreams, not someone else's nutty ideology - the world might be a nicer place to reside in. ~ Karl Wiggins

I have to thank my mother for paying for the piano lessons for all those years. ~ Billy Joel

Move to California - my first impression of the Wild West. ~ Billy Joel

Those who have expressed doubts and misgivings about their ability to live this kind of life shouldn't try, because being a musician is not something you chose to be, it is something you are. ~ Billy Joel

And the only people I fear are those who never have doubts ... Save us all from arrogant men, and all the causes they're for. ~ Billy Joel

If you search for truthfulness, you might as well be blind. ~ Billy Joel

It's a little intimidating to walk into a studio and know that you're going to sing a duet with Barbra Streisand. ~ Billy Joel

I can't remember faces, don't remember names, but after awhile and a thousand miles it all becomes the same. ~ Billy Joel

Take risks. Take chances. Don't be afraid. You gotta go into life brave. ~ Billy Joel

I didn't graduate high school, so I never got a teacher's education, I'm mostly self-read, self-taught. I always loved music, so I would probably either be in a band with another group of people, or an arranger, a producer, a musicologist, a music history guy, something to do with music. Either that, or I would probably be in jail. Or dead. ~ Billy Joel

I took a fresh pack of Luckies, a mint called Sen-Sen, my old man's Trojans. ~ Billy Joel

My big influences are piano artists like Billy Joel and Elton John. ~ Kyle Dunnigan

I'm writing new music all the time. I'm just not writing pop stuff. It's not my goal. ~ Billy Joel

Working too hard can give you a heart-attack. ~ Billy Joel

In every heart there is a room, A sanctuary safe and strong, To heal the wounds from lovers past, Until a new one comes along ~ Billy Joel

Do what you love, and you'll always love what you do ~ Billy Joel

Some love is just a lie of the heart, the cold remains of what began with a passionate heart. ~ Billy Joel