Quotes By Billy Joel

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.

I've crashed my car three times.

I definitely prefer being a lover than a fighter.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

My songs are like my kids.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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?

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.