There’s no damn business like show business – you have to smile to keep from throwing up.
BILLIE HOLIDAYIn 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.
More Billie Holiday Quotes
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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.
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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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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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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.
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I hate straight singing. I have to change a tune to my own way of doing it. That’s all I know.
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Don’t threaten me with love, baby. Let’s just go walking in the rain.
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When Lester plays, he almost seems to be singing; one can almost hear the words.
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If nobody can learn from the past, then there’s no point in raking it up.
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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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God has blessed you when he lets you believe in somebody.
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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.
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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.
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If I’m going to sing like someone else, then I don’t need to sing at all.
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I can’t stand to sing the same song the same way two nights in succession. If you can, then it ain’t music, it’s close order drill, or exercise or yodeling or something, not music.
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Don’t be in such a hurry.
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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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Sometimes it’s worse to win a fight than to lose.
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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.
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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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If I don’t have friends, then I ain’t nothing.
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I never sing a song the same way twice.
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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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People don’t understand the kind of fight it takes to record what you want to record the way you want to record it.
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I’m always making a comeback but nobody ever tells me where I’ve been.
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One day a whole damn song fell into place in my head.
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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.
BILLIE HOLIDAY