Top 200 Billy Joel Quotes (2025 Update)
Page 2 of 5

51. “I am, as I’ve said, merely competent. But in an age of incompetence, that makes me extraordinary.”

— Billy Joel

52. “We drown our doubts in dry champagne and soothe our souls with fine cocaine. I don’t know why I even care, we get so high and get nowhere.”

— Billy Joel

53. “Forced to recognize our inhumanity, our reason coexists with our insanity. And though we choose between reality and madness, it’s either sadness or euphoria.”

— Billy Joel

54. “She’ll carelessly cut you and laugh while you’re bleeding.”

— Billy Joel

55. “I’m carrying the weight of all the useless junk and modern man accumulates.”

— Billy Joel

56. “She can kill with a smile. She can wound with her eyes. She can ruin your faith with her casual lies. And she only reveals what she wants you to see. She hides like a child, but she’s always a woman to me.”

— Billy Joel

57. “If I ever reach heaven I expect to find three wonders there: first, to meet some I had not thought to see there; second, to miss some I had expected to see there; and third, the greatest wonder of all, to find myself there.”

— Billy Joel

58. “Everyone is a hypocrite in one sense or another and I’d rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints.”

— Billy Joel

59. “They’re sharing a drink they call lonliness, but it’s better than drinking alone.”

— Billy Joel

60. “More than art, more than literature, music is universally accessible.”

— Billy Joel

61. “They are sharing a drink called loneliness.”

— Billy Joel

62. “I’ve crashed my car three times.”

— Billy Joel

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

— Billy Joel

64. “You’re having a hard time and lately you don’t feel so good; You’re getting a bad reputation in your neighborhood. It’s alright, it’s alright; Sometimes that’s what it takes. You’re only human, you’re allowed to make your share of mistakes.”

— Billy Joel

65. “I’ve learned to dance with a hand in my pants.”

— Billy Joel

66. “What will it take for you to believe in me, the way that I believe in you?”

— Billy Joel

67. “Drank a lot of take home pay.”

— Billy Joel

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

— Billy Joel

69. “She’s the quiet type who’s into heavy metal.”

— Billy Joel

70. “Though you can see when you’re wrong, you know you can’t always see when you’re right.”

— Billy Joel

71. “Like a boxer in a title fight, you have to walk in that ring alone.”

— Billy Joel

72. “No matter what culture we’re from, everyone loves music.”

— Billy Joel

73. “You can pay Uncle Sam with all your overtime, is that all you get for your money?”

— Billy Joel

74. “I’ve reached the age where competence is a turn-on.”

— Billy Joel

75. “Rock and roll cola wars, I can’t take it any more.”

— Billy Joel

76. “She’s got a smile that heals me.”

— Billy Joel

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

— Billy Joel

78. “There will be miracles After the last war is won Science and poetry rule in the new world to come Prophets and angels Gave us the power to see What an amazing future there will be.”

— Billy Joel

79. “There ain’t much future for a man who works the sea, there ain’t no island left for islanders like me.”

— Billy Joel

80. “So before we end and then begin, we’ll drink a toast to how it’s been. A few more hours to be complete, a few more nights on satin sheets. A few more times that I can say, that I’ve loved these days.”

— Billy Joel

81. “The joy of life is made up of obscure and seemingly mundane victories that give us our own small satisfactions.”

— Billy Joel

82. “I’ve passed the age of consciousness and righteous rage. I found that just surviving was a noble fight.”

— Billy Joel

83. “I could walk away from anyone I ever knew, but I can’t walk away from you.”

— Billy Joel

84. “The graduations hang on the wall, but they never really helped us at all.”

— Billy Joel

85. “No end to sorrow, caused by the same endless fears. Why can’t we learn from all we’ve been through after two thousand years?”

— Billy Joel

86. “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. Loneliness will get to you somehow But ev’rybody loves you now.”

— Billy Joel

87. “If I need a cause for celebration, Or a comfort I can use to ease my mind, I rely on my imagination, And I dream of an imaginary time.”

— Billy Joel

88. “I’ve come to realize that life is not a musical comedy, it’s a Greek tragedy.”

— Billy Joel

89. “I have to thank my mother for paying for the piano lessons for all those years.”

— Billy Joel

90. “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

91. “You’ve given me the best of you, but now I need the rest of you.”

— Billy Joel

92. “Ain’t no rainbows shining on me, shades of gray are the colors I see.”

— Billy Joel

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

— Billy Joel

94. “It didn’t matter that I felt like a fool ’cause I forgot when she walked through the door.”

— Billy Joel

95. “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

96. “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

97. “If you could only hear what I dream.”

— Billy Joel

98. “Oh, she takes care of herself. She can wait if she wants. She’s ahead of her time. Oh, and she never gives out. And she never gives in. She just changes her mind.”

— Billy Joel

99. “Some folks like to get away Take a holiday from the neighborhood. Hop a flight to Miami Beach Or to Hollywood But I’m talking a Greyhound On the Hudson River Line. I’m in a New York state of mind.”

— Billy Joel

100. “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.”

— Billy Joel