Billy Joel

I've crashed my car three times.

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.

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.

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?

I 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.

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 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.

If you tell kids they can't have something, that's what they want.

My songs are like my kids.

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

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?