Billy Joel Quotations

I think music in itself is healing. It's an explosive expression of humanity. It's something we are all touched by. No matter what culture we're from, everyone loves music.

You're not the only one who's made mistakes, but they're the only things that you can truly call your own.

I consider myself to be an inept pianist, a bad singer, and a merely competent songwriter. What I do, in my opinion, is by no means extraordinary.

Why do musicians give so much time to charitable causes? The most humanitarian cause that we can give our time to is the creation and performance of music itself.

I definitely prefer being a lover than a fighter.

Artists - musicians, painters, writers, poets - always seem to have had the most accurate perception of what is really going on around them, not the official version or the popular perception of contemporary life.

I am no longer afraid of becoming lost, because the journey back always reveals something new, and that is ultimately good for the artist.

As human beings, we need to know that we are not alone, that we are not crazy or completely out of our minds, that there are other people out there who feel as we do, live as we do, love as we do, who are like us.

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

The whole world loves American movies, blue jeans, jazz and rock and roll. It is probably a better way to get to know our country than by what politicians or airline commercials represent.

I am, as I've said, merely competent. But in an age of incompetence, that makes me extraordinary.

Musicians want to be the loud voice for so many quiet hearts.

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.

I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints - the sinners are much more fun.

I keep telling people: Don't make me the poster boy for AA because I don't know a lot about sobriety, but I do know a lot about drinking.

I have a theory that the only original things we ever do are mistakes.

If you are not doing what you love, you are wasting your time.

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.

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.

If you make music for the human needs you have within yourself, then you do it for all humans who need the same things. You enrich humanity with the profound expression of these feelings.

I did write a letter to the archdiocese who'd banned the song, Only the Good Die Young, asking them to ban my next record.

Have you listened to the radio lately? Have you heard the canned, frozen and processed product being dished up to the world as American popular music today?

The good ole days weren't always good, and tomorrow ain't as bad as it seems.

Most people are satisfied with the junk food being sold as music.

There's nothing better than good sex. But bad sex? A peanut butter and jelly sandwich is better than bad sex.

More than art, more than literature, music is universally accessible.

I really wish I was less of a thinking man and more of a fool not afraid of rejection.

I don't care what consequence it brings, I have been a fool for lesser things.

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.

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.

There's a deep-seated paranoia that Americans have about not being Americans or something.

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?

When I was a young musician, the only option available to pursue secondary education in music was to attend a classical conservatory.

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.

When I was 19, I made my first good week's pay as a club musician. It was enough money for me to quit my job at the factory and still pay the rent and buy some food. I freaked.

For whatever reason, not all people are born with the particular gift of being able to express ourselves through music. And, believe me, it is a gift.

Musicians now find themselves in the unlikely position of being legitimate. At least the IRS thinks so.

I can't think of one person I've ever met who didn't like some type of music.

If you tell kids they can't have something, that's what they want.

I never said I wasn't going to play any more. I don't know where that came from.

It feels great to have a #1 album.

It's really hard to make a living as a musician. It's almost impossible.

You want to give people a reason to hate my guts more? I'm making more money.

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.

I think historically America has been pretty tolerant. It seems when there's a mass influx from one place, that's when it becomes problematic for Americans.

I'm probably writing music now for the same reason as I started writing songs when I was 14 - to meet women.

In an age of incompetence, I've been able to last in this crazy business. I actually know how to play my ax and write a song. That's my job.

I don't know why people thought I was retiring.

Don't make music for some vast, unseen audience or market or ratings share or even for something as tangible as money. Though it's crucial to make a living, that shouldn't be your inspiration. Do it for yourself.

There are certain artists who have taken it upon themselves to save the world, and I find that gets tiresome. I think the artist's first obligation is to the art, not to the issues . . . I think if I have something to say the best way to do that is just to tell a damn good story.

I always wanted to try to be a teacher even before I was in the music business. I liked history, and good teachers made an impact on me.

Most people you'd tell "I'm gonna be a musician," they'd say, "you're crazy, you're gonna starve, you're gonna be poor, a drug addict, go to jail, you'll never make it, there's too much competition, it's a terrible business," etc. But my chorus teacher in high school said, "you've got what it takes to be a really good professional musician, you should consider it." That was an epiphany for me. So I thought, well, maybe I can help somebody, too.

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.

I look at some of the songs I wrote years ago and I can't believe I wrote such crap.

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.

I'm kind of putting my toe back in the water and seeing how it feels. We're going to be doing stuff we haven't done for years and years and years. So I'm looking forward to seeing how this stuff flies.

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.

Some of the stuff I'm writing is almost like hymns, some of my first singing and choral experiences were in church, the Church of Christ in Hicksville.

I would say the songs that have different lyrics. I always write the music first, and there's a couple of songs on this box set that have different lyrics from what ended up on the final recording.

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

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.

If you're a very unfulfilled person you might have a tendency to turn to crime.

I'm not the kind of guy who wants to be on a pedestal.

I started just concentrating on songwriting when I was abut 20; I'd been in rock bands six or seven years, kinda got that out of my system, I said, "ok, you ain't gonna be a rock star, you don't look like a rock star, it probably ain't gonna happen. So what you should do is write songs and maybe other people will do your songs."

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.

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.

I always thought of myself as the piano player in the band. That, I suppose, I'm confident about, and I guess my songwriting developed as I went along and I got a certain amount of confidence in that. The songs are like my kids, I'm proud of all of them for one reason or another.

I tell the audience every night, "I hope you didn't pay more than face value on that ticket, because we ain't worth more than that, and you ain't gonna get any more than that."

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

When I first started I didn't know a lot about the job, so I kinda had to figure it out by wire, ya know? It was hit and miss, I made mistakes, and fortunately I was able to recover from most of 'em. But I promised myself if I ever get to a point where I can help somebody that's trying to learn how to do this, that I would try to do that.

I always wrote the music first, and the music gave me the mood and the lyrics were pretty much put in to give you a map, where that mood came from and where it's going. But my first love was really the music itself, and I guess I've gone back to that.

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.

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.

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

Even when I stop performing or stop making records I won't stop being creative. Songwriting is a good outlet.

You can linger too long in your dreams...

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

We passed the hash pipe and played our Doors tapes.

People in music lie, but they don't expect you to believe them. People in television actually expect you to believe the lies.

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.

Some people stay far away from the door if there's a chance of it opening up. They hear a voice in the hall outside and hope that it just passes by.

Maybe this won't last very long but you feel so right and I could be wrong. Maybe I've been hoping too hard. I've gone this far and it's more than I hope for.

I see the winos talking to themselves and I can understand.

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

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

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

I won't be righteous again. I'm not sure anymore.

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.

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

You may be wrong, but you may be right.

All she wanted was sax.

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

I've played all kinds of places, laid all kinds of girls.

She's the quiet type who's into heavy metal.

The piano sounds like a carnival and the microphone smells like a beer. And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar and say, man, what are you doing here?

What if she figures out you're not very smart?

I hope it does not take the rest of my life until I find what it is I've been looking for.

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

We might be laughing a bit too loud, but that never hurt no one

I've crashed my car three times.