Sometimes it’s worse to win a fight than to lose.
BILLIE HOLIDAYAnd when you’re poor, you grow up fast.
More Billie Holiday Quotes
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God bless the child that’s got his own.
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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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I never sing a song the same way twice.
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If nobody can learn from the past, then there’s no point in raking it up.
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I can only sing songs my way. I don’t know any other way.
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I try to improvise like Les Young, Louis Armstrong or someone else I admire. What comes out is what I feel.
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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 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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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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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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There’s no damn business like show business – you have to smile to keep from throwing up.
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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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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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The only reason they’re out there is to see me fall into the damn orchestra pit.
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One day a whole damn song fell into place in my head.
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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’m always making a comeback but nobody ever tells me where I’ve been.
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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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God has blessed you when he lets you believe in somebody.
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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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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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If I don’t have friends, then I ain’t nothing.
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Don’t threaten me with love, baby. Let’s just go walking in the rain.
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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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Love is like a faucet, it turns off and on.
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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.
BILLIE HOLIDAY