Top 161 Billy Quotes

The moment of true capitulation came when the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association quietly took Mormonism off the list of apostate religious groups.

‘Billy Elliot’ embodies the idea that anyone can achieve anything regardless of their socio-economic background.

When I had a job catering, I catered a wedding for the Smashing Pumpkins bassist in Indiana. And I served Billy Corgan shrimp off a tray.

I always call ‘Billy Elliot’ a fantasy autobiography because I never wanted to be a dancer, but I got a lot of stick from the other kids about wanting to be a writer and being interested in drama.

I went to see ‘Kinky Boots’ to see my friend Billy Porter in his groundbreaking performance. But while backstage, I was hoping for a chance to meet this young, dynamic performer Annaleigh Ashford. Her comic timing was brilliant. And she is obviously a triple threat.

Knowing constitutional law helps one at the opera. The trial in ‘Billy Budd,’ as example, invokes the fugitive slave clause of the U.S. Constitution.

I think ‘Billy on the Street’ is a big show, but why do a show if you won’t make it original and unique and powerful?

Billy Martin was a human tragedy, in the real sense of the words.

If there ever was a poet for the working class Billy Joe Shaver and Merle Haggard would be my nomination.

If you put all the songs together that I’ve written on band records, and put it up next to my solo record, there’s definitely a different kind of feel than Billy’s songs.

I remember playing Billy Cobham’s ‘Total Eclipse’ for Snoop Dogg. I also played him Frank Zappa, ‘Apostrophe.’ And I played him ‘Saint Alfonzo’s Pancake Breakfast.’

I put off writing the first Left Behind book for a year because I got invited to assist Billy Graham in his memoirs, and had we known what we were putting off for a year, we might not have put it off.

When I started to write ‘Crazy Thing Called Love,’ I wanted a conflict that would not only bring Billy and Maddy together in terms of proximity and give them a common goal but that would also drive a wedge between them. And nothing fit the bill quite like the arrival of some children.

My music library is all over the place. I’ve got A$AP Rocky; I’ve got Billy Joel. I’ve got, like, Celine Dion albums that I just worship. There’s all kinds of different stuff.

I was lucky enough to play with great platers Cameron Smith, Billy Slater, Darren Lockyer and that’s where I learned about leadership.

I have imbibed some Billy Crystal in me.

I am, of course, directly descended from Brian Boru, the last king of Ireland, a fact certified by my mother and therefore beyond dispute. But as everybody else with a drop of Irish blood in his carcass is also a guaranteed descendant of the old billy goat, I am not overly arrogant because of this royal strain.

And the film that I’ve seen a million times is ‘When Harry Met Sally’ with Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal, and directed by Rob Reiner.

Poetry. I read Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, and Jane Hirschfield. I like to read Billy Collins out loud.

Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton cannot write a timeless letter to us from a Birmingham jail or walk, as John Lewis did in 1965, across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., into a maelstrom of police dogs and billy clubs.

Many of the stranger but most frequently quoted scenes in ‘Billy Madison’ were unplanned.

I can tell you the actor who I admire the most. Billy Crudup. Do you know who he is? He’s awesome.

Billy Collins writes lovely poems. Limpid, gently and consistently startling, more serious than they seem, they describe all the worlds that are and were and some others besides.

I got the pilot for ‘Scrubs’ sent to me, and in the margin for Dr. Cox, it said ‘a John McGinley type.’ So when I went in to audition, I said to Billy Lawrence, who’s a dear friend of mine, I said, ‘Well, I’m John McGinley.’

Growing up my favorite coach was Billy Martin.

I get to hang out with Billy Bob Thornton at his house. We hang out over there every time we’re in L.A., because he doesn’t go out. We’ll hang and he’ll play us some of his tunes. It’s pretty awesome.

I watched ‘Billy Madison’ maybe 80 times. It’s my favourite movie. Watched it, like, a million times. My brother and sister watched it with me all the time.

I love watching Billy Bob, just as a punter anyway. I like his work. But working with him is really easy and really straight-forward. He’s immediately good. He doesn’t have to work up to it. He doesn’t make your life difficult. He listens. He’s a very good listener, in terms of his acting.

I started on computers with ‘Billy Bathgate,’ a little orange screen with black letters. I thought it was really cool, but it actually slowed me up for a while because it’s so easy to revise, I tended to stay on the same page. I’ve learned to discipline myself.

I’m a huge Billy Donovan fan.

I never had an understanding of Billy Martin. I did not accept the way he managed me. I did not accept the way he managed Ken Holtzman. I thought there was anti-Semitism there.

I purposely lost a fight to Billy Fox because they promised me that I would get a shot to fight for the title if I did.

For me, ’52nd Street’ is quintessential Billy Joel. I bought that record as a kid and listened to it so much.

‘Billy Elliot’ prides itself on being a family show, and it made sense to specifically cater to a family audience with an earlier evening curtain time.

I’m Billy the Kid, the fastest draw. It’s not arrogance. It’s the truth.

When I started out, I wanted to be Billy Joel. The plan was to be a singer-songwriter of that ilk, and, then, I got waylaid – that’s probably an unfair way to say it – from being a rock star by the musical theatre stuff, which I love doing.

I went through a Billy Idol phase. I had white hair when Peter Rizzo hired me at Barneys.

In college I was so mad I wasn’t playing. The two guys in front of me were Billy Volek and David Carr, but I just realized that was a blessing in disguise, that I was so bad and I never played, so my brain’s good.

There’s a picture of the real Coach Gary Gaines in the book and he’s sitting in the locker room after a game, and he just looks so much like Billy Bob, that we went to him.

Before he fought Billy Conn, Joe Louis said, ‘He can run, but he can’t hide.’ That’s how I feel about New York: You can run from it, but you can’t hide.

I’ve been to London twice. I saw the Broadway show ‘Billy Elliot’ there – phenomenal. I was crying through the entire thing.

I love film noir, so Billy Wilder is like my favorite director of all time.

Billy Graham that the world saw on television or saw on the big screen was the same Billy Graham that we saw at home. He wasn’t two people.

In ‘Billy Elliot,’ there were, like, 24 kids, so that was crazy. In ‘Annie,’ there’s nine of us; we’re all great friends, and we hang out all the time. We really are just sisters.

‘Analyze This’ is a good movie because Robert De Niro and Billy Crystal are really good. But without the material to put on the play, of course, they couldn’t be good. For me, it starts with the writing. I always think that the writer is doing the vast majority of the director’s work, in a sense.

The first time I toured the U.K. was in the early ’90s with Billy Pilgrim, so I know how much the people there love music.

Billy Jean King could not get credit when her husband was in law school and she was winning the Wimbledon, because he had to sign the cards. You know, you had these cases in the ’70s of women who were mayors who couldn’t get credit unless their husbands signed for them.

My great-grandfather was a variety hall comedian called Billy Mack.

I’ve always liked getting away with just a little bit of what you’re not supposed to. Like my first book, Billy’s Booger, got me in trouble with the principal’s office.

You could have a zillion Facebook followers. Those people don’t buy records. It’s about a hundred to one…Record companies, they don’t have any money, so they see social media as the free marketing… So… ‘Billy, light yourself on fire and stand upside down, and that’ll market the record.’

The setting of ‘Billy Elliot’ is the British miners’ strike of 1984-85, about which the average American playgoer knows absolutely nothing.

Young people and Indian people need to know that we existed in the 20th Century. We need to know who our heroes are and to know what we have done and accomplished in this century other than what Olympic athletes Jim Thorpe and Billy Mills have done.

Billy Campbell who is… I… truly one of the most talented actors today.

Me and George and Billy are two of a kind.

When they told me there would be a statue erected at Wrigley Field, I was happy with that. I know there will be a meeting place for a lot of people. There will be a conversation every day. They say now, ‘I’ll meet you at Ernie Banks’ statue.’ After Sept. 7, they’ll say, ‘I’ll meet you by Billy Williams’ statue.’

I want to play someone like Billy the Kid.

The last movie I did, I was very lucky: I got to work with probably the best actor of our era, Billy Bob Thornton. He’s just incredible. I was like a sponge: I soaked up everything he had to say.

Billy Graham isn’t about politics – Billy Graham is about God.

The three people I’ve always wanted to meet are Stephen Fry, Billy Connolly and Steven Gerrard.

I don’t know if people know this about me, but I’m into Billy Joel. I’m a huge fan of his and always have been. He’s just a quintessential songwriter of our time. Talk about a storied career – so many classic songs and great albums.

I’ve had so many hot, cheesy, corny loves of music in my life. I had a very intense Billy Joel period. So once you’ve really Joeled it up – there’s some good periods of Joel; it’s not all hot cheese. But I can’t judge anyone else for their cheese. I’ve deep-sea dived in the Gouda.

First time that I cried at a work of art was at a drum solo that I saw. A drummer named Winard Harper, part of the Billy Taylor Trio, gave back in – I would have been in high school – 2005 or something.

I had some great role models along the way. My on-field heroes were the great Ernie Banks, Billy Williams, and Willie Mays. I wanted to be like them on the field, and I am so damn proud to join them in the Hall of Fame.

The things that Billy Graham says, I really have no idea why he says them. He talks about things without really knowing all the facts. I just think there’s something wrong with the man.

I remember going to see Billy Graham in a cinema in Glasgow, and he was down in London. I used to go and hear preachers, and then we always went to church and Sunday school. That mattered a lot to me.

As far as directors, I’m a big fan of any kind of Billy Wilder stuff. Anything he does.

People might not know much about Akavov, but this is a guy who went overseas and gave Billy Joe Saunders absolute hell. Most people thought that he should have won the fight.

Any story that Billy Wilder told, you can tell in a Western.

To be honest, I’ve always been really interested in the role of the host, whether it’s our kind of Billy Crystal-style traditional awards show host or when you have someone like Louis C.K. or a more edgy stand-up comedian do their take on a hosting role.

The other guys and myself have agreed that Billy Sherwood will do an excellent job of covering my parts, and the show as a whole will deliver the same Yes experience that our fans have come to expect over the years.

Most people are blown away by the fact that Beck is Jewish… and Billy Joel. I didn’t know he was Jewish.

‘Billy on the Street’ is a persona. It’s crafted; it has writers. It’s a mixture of performance art and comedy.

It’s two guys in particular. Norman Smiley, he got his hands on me the day I walked in the door – started teaching me the fundamentals and teaching me things that I use – but Billy Gunn, that guy has helped me evolve more than anyone.

Hosting the Oscars is much like making love to a woman. It’s something I only get to do when Billy Crystal is out of town.

I’m born and raised Long Island. Billy Joel, Paul Simon, Ben Gibbard – melody-driven guys… They shaped me, molded my music.

Billy Joel and Joe Jackson were both great, and they both play piano.

My parents were always playing records: My mom was really into the Beatles and Fleetwood Mac, and my dad was more Billy Squire, Whitesnake, ’80s hair metal. But I think there’s that crucial point where you become an adolescent and you don’t want to listen to your parents’ music.

One host I love watching is Billy Crystal. His hosting was never scripted, it was organic.

I’ve got a role in the new Billy Bob Thornton movie that Billy Bob wrote and is going to direct called ‘Jayne Mansfield’s Car.’ I only have four scenes, but I have as much dialogue as anybody in the movie.

I used to eat lunch with Billy Wilder when I first came out here.

Most Billy Joel songs make me want to cry a little.

Nobody wanted to run back kicks until you saw Billy ‘White Shoes” Johnson.

I love Charlie, Billy Burke’s character. Writing for him is so spectacular, he’s so funny and wry and every scene he’s in he just takes. There’s a scene in ‘Eclipse’ where Bella tells him she’s a virgin, and it’s the funniest, most awkward scene I’ve ever seen on film.

I’m impressed with what the NWA has done, what Billy Corgan and Dave Lagana and those guys have done, establishing the NWA title to mean more and have more interest again.

When I tested for Billy Budd, I had that kind of confidence that comes with the certainty that you’re not going to get something. I was very rough around the edges.

We have a whole art department on ‘Billy on the Street.’ We give away dioramas that we’ve made.

I applied to Oxford in the ’80s and was invited to an interview. It was like a scene from ‘Billy Elliot.’ People were making fun of me for my accent and the way I was dressed. It was the most embarrassing, awful experience I had ever had in my life.

I am at my core a singer/songwriter a la James Taylor or a la Billy Joel. It’s not that I don’t want to work with people, but I do just love doing my own thing.

I love Billy Joel’s music, but let’s put it this way – I think this is a frustrated, ugly man.

I’m influenced by those ’40s, ’50s, and ’60s films: things like ‘The Apartment’ – I was a big fan of Billy Wilder.

Our pop cultural likes and dislikes are still very segregated, and that is not true of ‘Billy on the Street.’

I did a play in Bolton – ‘Billy Liar.’ I turned it down at first but then thought, ‘What the hell else can I do? I’m no good at anything else.’

Billy Crystal, Steve Martin do wonderful things.

Truth is, we offered it to Tom Hanks, which pretty much every movie in America does, but Tom passed. Billy Bob said that Hanks recently called and said he’s voting for all of us for Oscars, he loved the film.

There are some seminal things that happened in the ’70s for me: Billy Joel and Jackson 5.

‘Billy on the Street’ is the hardest thing that I will ever do.

In ‘Billy Madison,’ I worked with Adam before anyone really knew he was Adam Sandler.

I read all the time. I was reading a book I admire very much by Alice McDermot called Charming Billy.

Look at Greg Jbara! I’ve watched him work for years, always switching. He’s literally a different human being when he’s onstage in ‘Billy Elliot.’ That’s the fun of what we do.

I love the challenge of playing characters forced on life-changing emotional journeys. To work on a project with Billy Crudup and Sam Rockwell is just a dream come true.

I was born William. My father was William. I came from a big family, I hated being called Billy. Willem’s a nickname; it’s a Dutch name, very common in the Netherlands.

One of my favourite movies is Billy Wilder’s ‘The Apartment.’ It’s shot in super wide screen, and it’s beautiful.

Playing for Yogi is like playing for your father; playing for Billy is like playing for your father-in-law.

Most people I know think that I’m crazy – but anybody who actually knew Billy Thorpe didn’t think that. When I was a young kid growing up in Adelaide, he was a big pop star – a well-dressed, nice young guy seen on television every week. Mums liked him.

When I came to Hollywood, I would take the opportunity to get to know George Stevens or Willy Wyler or Billy Wilder or Freddie Zinnemann. David Lean I got to know, of course, in London. And David Selznick and Darryl Zanuck, not to mention Jack Warner, and Sam Goldwyn was actually very, very nice to me.

And they’re also very good at math, these super boogers, and so they teach Billy the ways of mathematics.

Training with Billy Robinson is just like any martial artist who would go to the old master of the art. He’s so knowledgeable.

I’m sure when alternative comedy started, before which – Billy Connolly aside – standup was essentially a person being racist and sexist onstage, there was also the sense that this was the death of comedy. But it’s just progress.

Billy Pilgrim music is very emotional. It’s one part the craft we learned from people like the Indigo Girls and R.E.M., and one part the Tom Waits craft, where you’re trying to create a moment.

My dad, Billy Ray, he had a huge hit in the ’90s with ‘Achy Breaky Heart.’ And, you know, as a kid I always said I wanted to be just like my dad. And it’s crazy – just be careful what you wish for because I had the same thing he had, which was a huge hit off his first album.

My brother Billy was the joke teller. My brother Jim had a really sharp, cutting wit. And the teller of long stories, that was my brother Ed. As a child, I just absorbed everything they said, and I was always in competition for the laughs.

I love Billy Joel. I cry sometimes when I hear ‘The Stranger.’ ‘You May Be Right’ may be one of the greatest songs ever written.

When I was in second grade, my mother moved from Miami to this evangelical conservative environment in western North Carolina, two miles down the road from Billy Graham and his wife, Ruth.

I have been influenced by many different artists at many different stages of my life. Starting out, it was people like Elton John, Billy Joel, Ben Folds, and Fiona Apple. As I got older I got deeper into the work of bands like the Beatles, artists like Sam Cooke, Ray Charles, Etta James, and Joni Mitchell.

Billy Wilder is really is a heavy influence on Bound. We felt that film noir was a genre where you could create a really contained story. We wanted to be on a set as much as we could to get the kind of style level we were looking for.

When my friends were listening to hip-hop or R&B, I was in the crib listening to Billy Joel and Michael Bolton, Luther Vandross, and Oscar Peterson.

I went to an ordinary primary school, and then I started performing in a show called ‘Billy Elliot’ on the West End, and that was sort of my drama school.

I came out with my five-piece group and opened at Billy Burke’s Swing Oar. This was when Hollywood was really jumpin’. This was when Frankie Laine used to come in and ask if he could sing a number.

I am going through a Neil Young phase. I also listen to a lot of alternative country, a band called Smog and Bonnie Prince Billy, which is very dark and twisted.

I listen to Billy Joel. He is fabulous. I saw him with Elton John when they toured together, it was so great.

Billy Joel is an incredible musician. He just feels like one of the guys, you know. I grew up listening to his music.

We are unique because we’re the same three guys, and as Billy says, playing the same three chords.

My trainer, Marty Jones, was trained by Billy Robinson, so was Johnny Saint and a lot of great British wrestlers.

Billy Graham talks about how he doesn’t judge people. I don’t either. Some people I am just pissed at.

OK, I dated Jordan Knight from New Kids on the Block, I dated a ‘Baywatch’ boy named David Charvet, and I dated Billy Idol.

I like old tunes when I’m driving. They’re fun and uplifting. Billy Ocean, that kind of thing.

Billy Gunn, Bill DeMott, and Dusty Rhodes all helped me find myself and how to express it to people so they understand.

‘Sunset Boulevard’ by Billy Wilder, it’s one of my favorite films. I love all the movies from the 1950s.

Billy Bremner… was the captain of a very successful side. He was quite small but feisty as anything and that’s what I love, playing with people that get stuck in and don’t get bullied by other teams.

I know that this sounds grand, but I don’t try to compete with other people. I like to think there’s enough pie for everyone. The kind of people I’m competing with are my heroes – Woody Allen, Billy Wilder – who I know I’m going to fall short of.

I don’t play guitar. I sing. I’m the lead singer, of Cousin Billy. I also play harmonica, after a fashion.

A movie that makes me cry every time is ‘Billy Elliot.’ That scene where he’s dancing in the hall, and his dad walks in. And the first time his dad can see how amazing he is dancing, but he’s so conflicted with kind of his own feelings towards it. Oh, it’s so emotional.

I saw ‘Billy Elliot’ again, and what I loved about it was the way it had become a social document, a reminder of what happened with the mining communities in the ’80s. And I thought, ‘Everyone keeps wanting me to make a sequel to ‘Beckham,’ but maybe a musical remake is the answer, embracing all this theatricality.’

Usually, if I want to just listen to something or sing along to something, I’ll put on some Gavin DeGraw or some Billy Joel. Occasionally, if I am feeling vocally in really great shape, I will sing Jean Valjean’s soliloquy from ‘Les Miz’ or something.

Me, Billy Crystal and John Goodman hang out non-stop, and all we do is silly voices. We hang out in a little closet and do voices together.

There are so few who are men worthy of praise in this dreadful life: Mr. McMahon is one who immediately comes to mind; Billy Shakespeare is another, Bob Barker, god rest his soul – wait, he’s not passed yet has he? Drat, take that one off, I suppose.

I learned early on that ‘Billy on the Street’ is a great lesson in ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover.’

Of all the projects I’ve worked on, I’ve never worked with another director like Billy Friedkin. I think he’s a genius.

I wrote ‘Young Guns’ on spec because I really believed that the young age of these guys historically, the whole legend of Billy dying at 21, would attract a young staple of stars, and that would be the game-changer.

‘Billy on the Street’ is a very exhausting show to do, as you can imagine, but it’s worth it.

I’ve written enough books with real celebrities, such as Walter Payton and Hank Aaron and Billy Graham, to know that fame looks good only to people who don’t have it.

The idea that the Tony committee and the New York theater community as a whole have embraced ‘Billy Elliot’ is very, very exciting.

Billy Connolly is probably the greatest stand-up this country has ever produced and he swears all the time.

Oh, yeah, I’ve always thought of covering some of my influences like Billy Joel, Elton John, Stevie Wonder.

During my teens and early 20s, I proved to be anything but what most people expected Billy Graham’s son to be. I’m so thankful he never gave up on me or quit loving me.

When I was on the road with Billy Bragg, it was cool because I was doing the whole thing solo and travel a lot by myself, which I quite like. I mean, I love being with friends, but it’s kind of nice having that alone time.

Billy Sheehan has always been my number one favorite bass player of all time.

‘Billy On The Street’ has no doubt always been about the people we talk to. That being said, it thrills me that the show really has a dedicated following in the comedy world.

For me, people in Ireland who became actors would have to go through the Billy Barry’s in Dublin.

Back when I first came up with the Twins as a second baseman, Billy worked with me on my fielding, on playing the game, on being heads-up, hustling, always doing my best, not alibiing. And when he was the Twins’ manager, I enjoyed playing for him.

It’s hard to think what should make your blood boil more – what happened to Billy Ray or what didn’t happen to those who abused him. It’s something we can’t ignore.

What the guys have learned is that whether you’re preaching to one or 10,000, it really doesn’t matter. That one person you touch may change the nation – could be the Billy Graham of Ethiopia.

I got to work with Dustin Hoffman on a film called ‘Billy Bathgate.’ I got to work with Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn and Bob Zemeckis on ‘Death Becomes Her.’ There are still a few actors out there that I would like to work with.

Billy not only had a distinguished career in the Legislature, but he also has great business instincts and has done exceedingly well making investment decisions in both stocks and private ventures such as real estate.

I’m a huge fan of Billy Idol. I spiked my hair every day like him in 7th and 8th grade.

Elton John and Billy Joel, I find them both to be huge inspirations, those guys are so talented.

When Billy Ray and I first got married, we lived in an A-frame house in Kentucky, and I didn’t even know you could get drapes made – I used to get drapes from Dillard’s. Once I hired a designer to help decorate that house was when I discovered a passion for designing.

I was drawn close to God at the birth of my twins, Barbara and Billy. You know, they were born prematurely and some thought they wouldn’t live, but God had other plans.

Chopin or Billy Eckstine or Miles Davis – that stuff helps me, more when I’ve already written and I need a little energy to keep editing.

My dad was not someone who you would strike with a billy club and he wouldn’t strike back. It just wasn’t in him.

I respect Billy Joel, but I’m not a guy who’s gonna sit down and listen to the entire ‘Essential Billy Joel.’