- 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.
Billie Holiday Quotes
By Jessica McElrath, About.com
Portrait of Billie Holiday
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Carl Van Vechten collectionSuggested Reading
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