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Billy Joel Quotes


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 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.

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.

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.

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?

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

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

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

I definitely prefer being a lover than a fighter.

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.

I don't care what consequence it brings, I have been a fool for lesser things.

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

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

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.

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

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

I sold my house to Jerry Seinfeld.