Quotes By Billie Holiday

Mom and Pop were just a couple of kids when they got married. He was eighteen, she was sixteen and I was three.

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.

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.

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

They think they can make fuel from horse manure - now, I don't know if your car will be able to get 30 miles to the gallon, but it's sure gonna put a stop to siphoning.

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

One day a whole damn song fell into place in my head.

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

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

People don't understand the kind of fight it takes to record what you want to record the way you want to record it.

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

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

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

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.

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.

There's no damn business like show business - you have to smile to keep from throwing up.

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.

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

You can't copy anybody and end with anything. If you copy, it means you're working without any real feeling.

All dope can do for you is kill you... the long hard way. And it can kill the people you love right along with you.

I never had a chance to play with dolls like other kids. I started working when I was six years old.

I never hurt nobody but myself and that's nobody's business but my own.

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

If I'm going to sing like someone else, then I don't need to sing at all.