Top 200 Billy Joel Quotes (2025 Update)
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151. “I don’t know why I go to extremes.”

— Billy Joel

152. “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.”

— Billy Joel

153. “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

154. “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

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

— Billy Joel

156. “I watched the mighty skyline fall.”

— Billy Joel

157. “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

158. “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

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

— Billy Joel

161. “My songs are like my kids.”

— Billy Joel

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

— Billy Joel

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

— Billy Joel

164. “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

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

— Billy Joel

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

— Billy Joel

167. “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

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

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

— Billy Joel

172. “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

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

— Billy Joel

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

— Billy Joel

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

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

— Billy Joel

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

— Billy Joel

180. “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

181. “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

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

— Billy Joel

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

— Billy Joel

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

— Billy Joel

185. “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

186. “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

187. “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

188. “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

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

— Billy Joel

190. “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

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

— Billy Joel

192. “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

193. “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

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

— Billy Joel

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

— Billy Joel

196. “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

197. “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

198. “There will be other words some other day; that is the story of my life.”

— Billy Joel

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

— Billy Joel

200. “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