And when you’re poor, you grow up fast.
BILLIE HOLIDAYThe whole basis of my singing is feeling. Unless I feel something, I can’t sing.
More Billie Holiday Quotes
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Sometimes it’s worse to win a fight than to lose.
BILLIE HOLIDAY -
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.
BILLIE HOLIDAY -
I can’t stand to sing the same song the same way two nights in succession, let alone two years or ten years.
BILLIE HOLIDAY -
You can’t copy anybody and end with anything. If you copy, it means you’re working without any real feeling.
BILLIE HOLIDAY -
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.
BILLIE HOLIDAY -
I never hurt nobody but myself and that’s nobody’s business but my own.
BILLIE HOLIDAY -
When you sing, always tell the truth.
BILLIE HOLIDAY -
The blues to me is like being very sad, very sick, going to church, being very happy … it’s sort of a mixed up thing. You just have to feel it.
BILLIE HOLIDAY -
I can only sing songs my way. I don’t know any other way.
BILLIE HOLIDAY -
If nobody can learn from the past, then there’s no point in raking it up.
BILLIE HOLIDAY -
I hate straight singing. I have to change a tune to my own way of doing it. That’s all I know.
BILLIE HOLIDAY -
I don’t think I ever sing the same way twice. The blues is sort of a mixed-up thing. You just have to feel it. Anything I do sing is part of my life.
BILLIE HOLIDAY -
Somebody once said we never know what is enough until we know what’s more than enough.
BILLIE HOLIDAY -
If I don’t have friends, then I ain’t nothing.
BILLIE HOLIDAY -
People don’t understand the kind of fight it takes to record what you want to record the way you want to record it.
BILLIE HOLIDAY






