Billy joel quotes

If you search for truthfulness, you might as well be blind.

Even when I stop performing or stop making records I won't stop being creative. Songwriting is a good outlet.

There are people who have lost every trace of human kindness.

Take risks. Take chances. Don't be afraid. You gotta go into life brave.

...And you're the only one who knows.

You look so polished from your hair down to your toes, but still your finger's gonna pick your nose.

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?

Call me a joker, call me a fool, right at this moment I'm totally cool.

I could walk away from anyone I ever knew, but I can't walk away from you.

It's alright, you can afford to lose a day or two

I said I love you and that's forever And this I promise from the heart I could not love you any better I love you just the way you are.

We might be laughing a bit too loud, but that never hurt no one

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

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

You've got yoga, I've got beer. You got overpriced, I got weird.

you may be right, I may be crazy, but it just might be a lunatic you're looking for

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.

Do what's good for you Or you're not good for anybody

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.

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.

People in music lie, but they don't expect you to believe them. People in television actually expect you to believe the lies.

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.

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.

You'll learn more from your accidents than anything that you could ever learn at school.

I believe there is a time for meditation in cathedrals of our own.

You've got to be hard, like the rock in that old rock & roll.

You just sit home and masturbate. The phone is going to ring soon, but you just can't wait.

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

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.

Everybody is different. Some writers can write reams of great books and then J. D. Salinger wrote just a few. Beethoven wrote nine symphonies. They were all phenomenal. Mozart wrote some 40 symphonies, and they were all phenomenal. That doesn't mean Beethoven was a lesser writer, it's just some guys are capable of more productivity, some guys take more time.

Only the good die young.

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

Some love is just a lie of the heart, the cold remains of what began with a passionate heart.

As long as there are memories, yesterday remains. As long as there is hope, tomorrow awaits. As long as there is friendship, today is beautiful.

I believe I've passed the age of consciousness and righteous rage. I've found that just surviving is a noble fight. I once believed in causes too; I had my pointless points of view. And life went on no matter who as wrong or right.

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 a statistic in a system that a civil servant dominates.

Don't wait for answers, just take your chances. Don't ask me why.

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

Some people stay away from the door for the chance of it opening up.

Like family, we are tied to each other. This is what all good musicians understand.

You only beat me if you get me to hate.

I've come to realize that life is not a musical comedy, it's a Greek tragedy.

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

I tell the audience every night, "I hope you didn't pay more than face value on that ticket, because we ain't worth more than that, and you ain't gonna get any more than that."

She's got a way about her, And everywhere she goes, a million dreams of love surround her, everywhere.

Someday we'll all be gone, but lullabies go on and on / They never die, that's how you and I will be

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.

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

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.

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.

They say there's a heaven for those who wait, some say it's better I say it ain't.

Some people stay far away from the door if there's a chance of it opening up. They hear a voice in the hall outside and hope that it just passes by.

I've lived long enough to have learned, the closer you get to the fire, the more you get burned.

I'm not sure about life after this; god knows I'm not a spiritual man.

When I first started I didn't know a lot about the job, so I kinda had to figure it out by wire, ya know? It was hit and miss, I made mistakes, and fortunately I was able to recover from most of 'em. But I promised myself if I ever get to a point where I can help somebody that's trying to learn how to do this, that I would try to do that.

There's an old man sitting next to me, making love to his tonic and gin.

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

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

Black and white is how it should be, but shades of grey are the colors I see.

Slow down you're doing fine You can't be everything you want to be before your time.

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

Don't go changing to try and please me You never let me down before Don't imagine you're too familiar And I don't see you anymore I would not leave you in times of trouble We never could have come this far I took the good times, I'll take the bad times I'll take you just the way you are Don't go trying some new fashion Don't change the color of your hair. [...] I could not love you any better I love you just the way you are.

You can linger too long in your dreams.

I don't know why I go to extremes.

You may be wrong, but you may be right.

You can’t go the distance with too much resistance

I'm sure you have some cosmic rationale, but here you are with your faith and your Peter Pan advice.

And the only people I fear are those who never have doubts... Save us all from arrogant men, and all the causes they're for.

I've reached the age where competence is a turn-on.

Honesty is such a lonely word. Everyone is so untrue.

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.

She's got a smile that heals me.

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.

So I would choose to be with you, That's if the choice were mine to make, But you can make decisions too, And you can have this heart to break

We all end in the ocean. We all start in the streams. We're all carried along, by the river of dreams.

'Our parents' generation had it a lot tougher than we did. They had to live through the Depression, World War II, and then they had to, you know, try to pick up the pieces of their lives and bring up their children. And, it was a great example for us. I guess we grew up with a certain amount of the ethics our parents had, which is, you know: work hard, make your own way, be independent.

It's a little intimidating to walk into a studio and know that you're going to sing a duet with Barbra Streisand.

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.

Usually when I'm writing, I try to write fairly quickly. If a song sits around too long, it starts to take on a stink. Most of my songs are written in one sitting, two sittings maybe. Those are the ones I like the best, anyway.

For whatever reason, not all people are born with the particular gift of being able to express ourselves through music. And, believe me, it is a gift.

Life is a series of hellos and goodbyes; I'm afraid it's time for goodbye again

every time I've held a rose, It seems I only felt the thorns

I'm single but interviewing.

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 definitely prefer being a lover than a fighter.

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.

We're on the verge of all things new.

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

In every heart there is a room, A sanctuary safe and strong, To heal the wounds from lovers past, Until a new one comes along

It's OK if you mess up. You should give yourself a break.

Most people you'd tell "I'm gonna be a musician," they'd say, "you're crazy, you're gonna starve, you're gonna be poor, a drug addict, go to jail, you'll never make it, there's too much competition, it's a terrible business," etc. But my chorus teacher in high school said, "you've got what it takes to be a really good professional musician, you should consider it." That was an epiphany for me. So I thought, well, maybe I can help somebody, too.

Out of respect for the things that I was never destined to do, I have learned that my strengths are a result of my weaknesses, my success is due to my failures, and my style is directly related to my limitations.

You should never argue with a crazy mind, you ought to know my now.

Do what you love, and you'll always love what you do

Advice is cheap; you can take it from me.

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.

Videos destroyed the vitality of rock and roll. Before that, music said, "Listen to me." Now it says, "Look at me."

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.

I didn't graduate high school, so I never got a teacher's education, I'm mostly self-read, self-taught. I always loved music, so I would probably either be in a band with another group of people, or an arranger, a producer, a musicologist, a music history guy, something to do with music. Either that, or I would probably be in jail. Or dead.

This is the time to remember cause it will not last forever. These are the days to hold onto cause we won't although we'll want to.

Lawrence of Arabia, British Beatlemania.

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

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

Well I never had a place that I could call my very own/That's all right, my love, 'cause you're my home.

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

Say goodbye to the oldies, but goodies, because the good old days weren't always good and tomorrow ain't as bad as it seems

I'm in a New York state of mind

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 compare songwriting to childbirth. How many kids can you have before your uterus explodes?

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

Don't be afraid to try again everyone goes south every now and then.

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.

She can kill with her smile, she can wound with her eyes.

Hot funk, cold punk, even if it's old junk, it's still rock and roll to me.

Following a code of silence, you're never gonna lose the anger.

We're only human, we're supposed to make mistakes.

I'm a cosmopolitan sophisticate of culture and intelligence. The culmination of technology and civilized experience.

As an atheist you have to rationalize things... Then you have to try and make some sort of sense out of your problems. And if you try and find you can't, you have no choice but to be good and scared -- but that's okay!

I started taking piano lessons when I was about four years old. My parents were both musicians. So I took piano lessons. I didn't like the lessons very much, but I was enchanted by music. Music always transported me somewhere. Singing made feel good and being able to play the piano made me feel good.

Ain't no rainbows shining on me, shades of gray are the colors I see.

I am no longer afraid of becoming lost, because the journey back always reveals something new, and that is ultimately good for the artist.

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.

I have a theory that the only original things we ever do are mistakes.

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.