Best 265 quotes of Billy Joel on MyQuotes

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

All she wanted was sax.

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.

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.

And you know that when the truth is told that you can get what you want or you can just get old.

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

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.

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!

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.

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.

A typical day in the life of a heavy metal musician consists of a round of golf and an AA meeting.

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

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

Call you up in the middle of the night. It's awful hard trying to make love long distance, but I really need stimulation.

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

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

Don't go changing, to try and please me You never let me down before.

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.

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.

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

Drank a lot of take home pay.

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

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.

Every child had a pretty good shot, to get at least as far as their old man got. But something happened on the way to that place. They threw an American flag in our face.

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

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

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.

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.

From a town known as Wheeling, West Virginia Rode a boy with a six-gun in his hand And his daring life of crime made him a legend in his time East and west of the Rio Grande. Well, he started with a bank in Colorado In the pocket of his vest a Colt he hid. And his age and his size took the teller by surprise, And the word spread of Billy the Kid.

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

Give us this day our daily discount outlet merchandise...

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?

Here I am starting a franchise and I'm gonna be 65 years old. I should've started this in 1978... I wrote like 300 songs and I'm gonna have to re-learn some of them!

Hey Lord, would ya look out for her tonight, and make sure that all her dreams are sweet? Said now, would ya guide her on the roads, and make them softer for her feet? Hey Lord, would ya look out for her tonight, and make sure that she's gonna be alright, until she's home and here with me.

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.

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

Honesty is the best part of any art form. If you don't have that, you're kidding yourself and your listener.

Hope you don't think this is Billy Joel unplugged. I'm a piano player. I'm already unplugged.

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

I always hated my hair, so now it's going away.

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.

I always wanted to try to be a teacher even before I was in the music business. I liked history, and good teachers made an impact on me.

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.

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

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.

I am the entertainer, I've come to do my show You've heard my latest record, it's been on the radio It took me years to write it, they were the best years of my life It was a beautiful song but it ran too long If you're gonna have a hit you gotta make it fit So they cut it down to 3:05.

I am the entertainer, the idol of my age I make all kinds of money when I go on the stage You see me in the papers, I've been in the magazines But if I go cold, I won't get sold I get put in the back in the discount rack Like another can of beans.

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.

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

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