Billy Joel Quotes (134 Quotes)


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

    You can speak your mind But not on my time.

    Classical music always had a great influence on me. In fact some of my songs have a classical theme in mind.


    Don't wait for answers... Just take your chancesDon't ask me why.


    I was amazed by the way all of that played out in the media. To me, a musician going to rehab is like a normal person going to get his teeth cleaned. Don't these people ever watch Behind the Music It's a cliche. If I had known that the story was going to be reported in the way that it was, I would have considered not going at all.

    I definitely prefer being a lover than a fighter.

    She will promise you more Than the Garden of Eden Then she'll carelessly cut you And laugh while you're bleeding.

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

    You better believe there will be times in your life when you'll be feeling like a stumbling fool. So take it from me you'll learn more from your accident than anything that you could ever learn in school.

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

    You can walk away from your mistakes.You can turn your back on what you do.Just a little smile is all it takes, and you can have your cake, and eat it too

    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.

    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.

    There was a time in my life when I was drinking too much, and so I have stopped. It's an interesting concept. 'Just don't drink.' Hmm I never thought of that

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

    I was homeless when I was younger and I was suicidal when I was 21. Anything that has happened after that is like water off a duck's back.

    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.

    Some people sleep all alone every nightInstead of taking a lover to bedSome people find that it's easier to hateThan to wait anymore.

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

    Some folks like to get awayTake a holiday from the neighborhoodHop a flight to Miami BeachOr to HollywoodBut I'm talking a GreyhoundOn the Hudson River LineI'm in a New York state of mind.

    I hate making videos. Songs are not visual. You get it out of the air. You don't watch it on MTV.

    Don't go trying some new fashionDon't change the color of your hair. . . .I could not love you any betterI love you just the way you are.

    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.


    Why should I worry Why should I careThere's just this street population, and I've got 'street savoir-faire'.


    I promised I would never leave youAnd you should always knowWherever you may goNo matter where you areI never will be far away

    Water has an endless horizon there is no limitation when you look out into the water. There's nothing to interfere with the mind's eye projecting itself as far as it can possibly imagine. I suppose it's the same way people in the Midwest feel about watching amber waves of grain or endless rows of cornfields. There is something exhilarating about it.

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

    I know how big business works. I don't trust it.

    They say that these are not the best of times But they're the only times I've ever known And I believe there is a time for meditation In cathedrals of our own.

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

    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.

    If you said good-bye to me tonight,There would still be music left to write.

    I don't know why I even care, we get so high and get nowhere.

    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.

    They say there's a heaven for those who will wait. Some say it's better, but I say it ain't. I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints. Sinners are much more fun...

    The good days weren't really so good, and tomorrow ain't as bad as it seems.

    When you look into my eyes; And you see the crazy gypsy in my soul; It always comes as a surprise; When I feel my withered roots begin to grow; Well I never had a place that I could call my very own; That's all right, my love, 'cause you're my home.

    Rolling Stone magazine would not say anything positive about me, and they were the tastemakers at the time. There were people from the old guard who insisted I wasn't a real rock and roller. Well, O.K., fine -- I'm not a real rock and roller. You got me.

    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?

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

    The happiest times in my life were when my relationships were going well -- when I was in love with someone, and someone was loving me. But in my whole life, I haven't met the person I can sustain a relationship with yet. So I'm discontented about that. I'm angry with myself. I have regrets.

    I know I'm searching for something Something so undefined That it can only be seen By the eyes of the blind In the middle of the night.

    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.

    I'm still dealing with the 21-year-old me. That idealist, that purist, that young, noble, and somewhat foolish guy . . . So I tell them to try to hold on to the way they feel right now. Because that's going to effect them for the rest of their lives.

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

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

    I'll take my chances... I forgot how nice romance is...I haven't been there for the longest time...


    More Billy Joel Quotations (Based on Topics)


    Music - Life - Musicians - Time - Love - People - Place - Art - Fool - Mind - Work & Career - Smiling - Youth - Chance - Family - Hope - Age - Reasoning - Criticism - View All Billy Joel Quotations

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