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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.

Billy Joel

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Billy Joel
Age: 75
Born: 1949
Born: May 9
Composer
Musician
Pianist
Singer
Singer-Songwriter
New York City
New York
William Martin Joel
William Martin Billy Joel
BJ
William M. Joel
Honor
Puzzling
Sometimes
Honors
Even
Praised
Always
Criticized
Bothered
Received
Criticism
Praise
Stung

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I 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.
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Critics have said I write without spontaneity, in cold blood. I don't. I write in hot blood.
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Like family, we are tied to each other. This is what all good musicians understand.
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Do what's good for you Or you're not good for anybody
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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.
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Black and white is how it should be, but shades of grey are the colors I see.
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I believe that all important matters have to be settled here, not in the clouds somewhere after we kick off.
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I see the winos talking to themselves and I can understand.
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Well I never had a place that I could call my very own/That's all right, my love, 'cause you're my home.
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It's really hard to make a living as a musician. It's almost impossible.
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Sergeant O'Leary is walking the beat, at night he becomes a bar tender.
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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.
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Musicians 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.
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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.
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I was thinking of the Four Seasons, Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, and when I was thinking Uptown Girl! I was trying to sing like Frankie Valli. They had a song called Ragdoll, which was about a poor girl and a rich guy. So I just flipped it around and made it about a rich girl and a poor guy.
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I don't want clever conversation, I never want to work that hard, I just want someone I can talk to, I want you just the way you are.
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Move to California - my first impression of the Wild West.
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We're on the verge of all things new.
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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.
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I've reached the age where competence is a turn-on.
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