We all have a face that we hide away forever, and we take them out and show ourselves when everyone has gone.
Billy JoelThere was only really one accident that was kinda bad but it was nothing to do with booze, just bad luck... I was having a hard time a couple of years ago... I'm a good driver, I just had bad luck.
Billy JoelWhen 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.
Billy JoelWhen I see an entire community disenfranchised, it disturbs me. Not that I'm a message guy, per se. I write about people. I like to write about human beings, not crap political rhetoric. I've tried to avoid that all my life. When I wrote about soldiers in Vietnam, I wasn't trying to make a political statement. I was trying to write about how screwed things were for soldiers, and how they still are.
Billy JoelSlow down you're doing fine You can't be everything you want to be Before your time Although it's so romantic on the borderline tonight Too bad but it's the life you lead You're so ahead of yourself That you forfeit what you need Though you can see when you're wrong
Billy JoelGive a moment or two to the angry young man with his foot in his mouth and his heart in his hand.
Billy JoelAs 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!
Billy JoelTwyla 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?
Billy JoelThis is our moment, here at the cross-roads of time. Time is relentless and as the past dissappears, we're on the verge of all things new.
Billy JoelI 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 JoelWhen 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.
Billy JoelRemember how I found you there alone in your electric chair, I told you dirty jokes until you smiled.
Billy JoelIn hell there's a big hotel where the bar just closed and the windows never opened. No phone so you can't call home, and the TV works, but the clicker is broken.
Billy JoelI can't remember faces, don't remember names, but after awhile and a thousand miles it all becomes the same.
Billy JoelI'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 JoelI'm a cosmopolitan sophisticate of culture and intelligence. The culmination of technology and civilized experience.
Billy JoelI've passed the age of consciousness and righteous rage. I found that just surviving was a noble fight.
Billy JoelDream on, but don't imagine they'll all come true. When will you realize... Vienna waits for you.
Billy Joel'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.
Billy JoelI started just concentrating on songwriting when I was abut 20; I'd been in rock bands six or seven years, kinda got that out of my system, I said, "ok, you ain't gonna be a rock star, you don't look like a rock star, it probably ain't gonna happen. So what you should do is write songs and maybe other people will do your songs."
Billy JoelSome 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.
Billy JoelThis 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.
Billy JoelI'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 JoelPeople in music lie, but they don't expect you to believe them. People in television actually expect you to believe the lies.
Billy JoelMusicians know all about unemployment. You're unemployed a lot, and I think there's a great deal of empathy between musicians and people who are out of work.
Billy JoelThe piano sounds like a carnival and the microphone smells like a beer. And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar and say, man, what are you doing here?
Billy JoelI'm kind of putting my toe back in the water and seeing how it feels. We're going to be doing stuff we haven't done for years and years and years. So I'm looking forward to seeing how this stuff flies.
Billy JoelI 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.
Billy JoelMusicians now find themselves in the unlikely position of being legitimate. At least the IRS thinks so.
Billy JoelI guess some people in classical music can keep going until they kick (die) and the (Rolling) Stones are definitely pushing the envelope but I wonder if here's a time when you have to face whether you are as good as you used to be.
Billy JoelI 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