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Billie Holiday Quotes

By Jessica McElrath, About.com

Billie Holiday

Portrait of Billie Holiday

Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Carl Van Vechten collection
  • I can't stand to sing the same song the same way two nights in succession, let alone two years or ten years. If you can, then it ain't music, it's close-order drill or exercise or yodeling or something, not music.

  • I hate straight singing. I have to change a tune to my own way of doing it. That's all I know.

  • I'm always making a comeback but nobody ever tells me where I've been.

  • If you copy, it means you're working without any real feeling. No two people on earth are alike, and it's got to be that way in music or it isn't music.

  • No two people on earth are alike, and it's got to be that way in music or it isn't music.

  • Singing songs like 'The Man I Love' or 'Porgy' is no more work than sitting down and eating Chinese roast duck, and I love roast duck.

  • A kiss that is never tasted, is forever and ever wasted.

  • Don't threaten me with love, baby. Let's just go walking in the rain.

  • Love is like a faucet, it turns off and on.

  • You've got to have something to eat and a little love in your life before you can hold still for any damn body's sermon on how to behave.

  • If I don't have friends, then I ain't nothing.

  • If you copy, it means you're working without any real feeling. No two people on earth are alike, and it's got to be that way in music or it isn't music.

  • Somebody once said we never know what is enough until we know what's more than enough.

  • Sometimes it's worse to win a fight than to lose.

  • You can be up to your boobies in white satin, with gardenias in your hair and no sugar cane for miles, but you can still be working on a plantation.

  • Dope never helped anybody sing better or play music better or do anything better. All dope can do for you is kill you - and kill you the long, slow, hard way.

  • If you think dope is for kicks and for thrills, you're out of your mind. There are more kicks to be had in a good case of paralytic polio or by living in an iron lung.

  • In this country, don't forget, a habit is no damn private hell. There's no solitary confinement outside of jail. A habit is hell for those you love. And in this country it's the worst kind of hell for those who love you.

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