Billy Squier

“I have a great deal of respect for myself as a musician and a writer, even if I'm not doing it anymore.”

“People say, 'When are you making this comeback?' I say, 'It's not a comeback, it's a record.' They say, 'Where have you been all these years?' I say, 'I've been making records.'”

“I think if you're going to a concert and spending $15 for a ticket for you and your girlfriend, then you're going to buy a T-shirt, and you end up spending close to $100 a night, what with gas in the car and anything else to get you in the spirit of things, I just think that people deserve their money's worth.”

“When I was a kid, I was interested in folk music. But rock represented power, and I became the best rock guitarist in my school.”

“We don't want to categorize our music. Some people say you need a definite musical direction to give a group visibility.”

“I used to be a big arena person. I thought more people equaled more intensity, but smaller places are a lot more intimate, I feel more connected with the audience.”

“I had great trouble believing in myself, so I didn't believe in my success - I didn't enjoy my success, which I thought was insane.”

“There's this raw, basic quality people expect in my music.”

“When I write the songs, I don't dictate how people should interpret them.”

“I'm the middle-class kid; it doesn't sound exciting, but a lot of my audience is middle-class kids.”

“I'm not gonna get it all right, but I take my victories, as small as they are.”

“Basically, my life was music, and I was always consumed by it.”

“Music is cyclical, but I've never thought of the music I make as being so off the wall or left field that it wouldn't always have an audience that would relate to it.”

“It would be easier to be more mysterious, but I try to be accessible.”

“I don't feel I have to be Jackson Browne. Still, I like to say something.”

“Don't Say No' was the first album I'd done that I felt completely comfortable with.”

“I find the idea of doing what you do over and over again to be incredibly boring.”

“Take 'The Stroke,' for instance. Plenty of people saw sexual connotations in that song but to me it was about what goes on in the business world.”

“Becoming a Top Ten artist has surprised me.”

“If 'Emotions in Motion' comes out right, I can write the book on the formula rock star.”