Top 200 Billy Joel Quotes (2024 Update)
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151. “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.”

— Billy Joel

152. “I watched the mighty skyline fall.”

— Billy Joel

153. “I don’t know why I go to extremes.”

— Billy Joel

154. “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.”

— Billy Joel

155. “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.”

— Billy Joel

156. “I am the entertainer and I know just where I stand Another serenader and another long haired band Today I am your champion, I may have won your hearts, But I know the game, you’ll forget my name, And I won’t be here in another year If I don’t stay on the charts.”

— Billy Joel

157. “I’m a cosmopolitan sophisticate of culture and intelligence. The culmination of technology and civilized experience.”

— Billy Joel

158. “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

159. “I’m probably writing music now for the same reason as I started writing songs when I was 14 – to meet women.”

— Billy Joel

160. “My songs are like my kids.”

— Billy Joel

161. “You look so polished from your hair down to your toes, but still your finger’s gonna pick your nose.”

— Billy Joel

162. “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.”

— Billy Joel

163. “You get paid like a really good call girl. Walking offstage is like the walk of shame.”

— Billy Joel

164. “I have long admired Steinway pianos for their qualities of tone, clarity, pitch consistency, touch responsiveness, and superior craftsmanship.”

— Billy Joel

165. “I believe that all important matters have to be settled here, not in the clouds somewhere after we kick off.”

— Billy Joel

166. “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.”

— Billy Joel

167. “Give a moment or two to the angry young man with his foot in his mouth and his heart in his hand.”

— Billy Joel

168. “We all have a face that we hide away forever, and we take them out and show ourselves when everyone has gone.”

— Billy Joel

169. “Rock and roll just used to be for kicks, now a days it’s politics.”

— Billy Joel

170. “Streetlife serenaders Have no obligations Hold no grand illusions Need no stimulation.”

— Billy Joel

171. “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.”

— Billy Joel

172. “My daughter sent me on a mission to get as many autographs as possible.”

— Billy Joel

173. “We’re on the verge of all things new.”

— Billy Joel

174. “If you’re a very unfulfilled person you might have a tendency to turn to crime.”

— Billy Joel

175. “I won’t be righteous again. I’m not sure anymore.”

— Billy Joel

176. “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.”

— Billy Joel

177. “I don’t belong in limos or private jets or on stage with people cheering me but that’s what’s kept me grounded because I know it’s not right.”

— Billy Joel

178. “I see the winos talking to themselves and I can understand.”

— Billy Joel

179. “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.”

— Billy Joel

180. “I always hated my hair, so now it’s going away.”

— Billy Joel

181. “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.”

— Billy Joel

182. “Some people find it’s easier to hate.”

— Billy Joel

183. “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

184. “You want to give people a reason to hate my guts more? I’m making more money.”

— Billy Joel

185. “There’s a deep-seated paranoia that Americans have about not being Americans or something.”

— Billy Joel

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

— Billy Joel

187. “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

188. “I look at some of the songs I wrote years ago and I can’t believe I wrote such crap.”

— Billy Joel

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

— Billy Joel

190. “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

191. “Artist – 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.”

— Billy Joel

192. “If you tell kids they can’t have something, that’s what they want.”

— Billy Joel

193. “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

194. “And so my child and I came to this place to meet him eye to eye and face to face. He made my daughter laugh, then we embraced. We never knew what friends we had, until we came to Leningrad.”

— Billy Joel

195. “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

196. “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

197. “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.”

— Billy Joel

198. “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?”

— Billy Joel

199. “I’m a statistic in a system that a civil servant dominates.”

— Billy Joel

200. “You only beat me if you get me to hate.”

— Billy Joel