I hate straight singing. I have to change a tune to my own way of doing it. That’s all I know.
BILLIE HOLIDAYThe 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.
More Billie Holiday Quotes
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There’s no damn business like show business – you have to smile to keep from throwing up.
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God has blessed you when he lets you believe in somebody.
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A kiss that is never tasted, is forever and ever wasted.
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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.
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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.
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And when you’re poor, you grow up fast.
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I’m always making a comeback but nobody ever tells me where I’ve been.
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When you sing, always tell the truth.
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I can’t stand to sing the same song the same way two nights in succession, let alone two years or ten years.
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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.
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Mom and Pop were just a couple of kids when they got married. He was eighteen, she was sixteen and I was three.
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I can only sing songs my way. I don’t know any other way.
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The whole basis of my singing is feeling. Unless I feel something, I can’t sing.
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I don’t think I’m singing. I feel like I’m playing a horn, What comes out is what I feel.
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If I don’t have friends, then I ain’t nothing.
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In this country kings or dukes don’t amount to nothing. The greatest man around then was Franklin D. Roosevelt, and he was the President; so I started calling Lester the President. It got shortened to Pres.
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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.
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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.
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New Orleans is the only city in the world you go in to buy a pair of nylon stockings they want to know your head size.
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I joined Count Basie’s band to make a little money and to see the world. For two years I didn’t see anything but the inside of a Blue Goose bus, and I never got to send home a quarter.
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The only reason they’re out there is to see me fall into the damn orchestra pit.
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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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I never hurt nobody but myself and that’s nobody’s business but my own.
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Lust may be in the heart, though it be not seen by others; as guests may be in the house, though they look not out at the windows.
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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.
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I never had a chance to play with dolls like other kids. I started working when I was six years old.
BILLIE HOLIDAY