8 Quotes by Billy Joel about writing

  • Author Billy Joel
  • Quote

    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.

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  • Author Billy Joel
  • Quote

    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.

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  • Author Billy Joel
  • Quote

    Some of the stuff I'm writing is almost like hymns, some of my first singing and choral experiences were in church, the Church of Christ in Hicksville.

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  • Author Billy Joel
  • Quote

    I would say the songs that have different lyrics. I always write the music first, and there's a couple of songs on this box set that have different lyrics from what ended up on the final recording.

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  • Author Billy Joel
  • Quote

    I'm writing new music all the time. I'm just not writing pop stuff. It's not my goal.

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  • Author Billy Joel
  • Quote

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

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  • Author Billy Joel
  • Quote

    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.

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