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

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.
BILLIE HOLIDAY

Marriage Myself Parents Young
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

Myself Night Sing Song Stand
If I’m going to sing like someone else, then I don’t need to sing at all.
BILLIE HOLIDAY

Myself Need Sing
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.
BILLIE HOLIDAY

Appearance Hairs Plantation Yourself
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

Feeling Life Myself Sing Thinking Way
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.
BILLIE HOLIDAY

Hard Kill Love Yourself
God has blessed you when he lets you believe in somebody.
BILLIE HOLIDAY

Believe Blessing God Yourself
If I don’t have friends, then I ain’t nothing.
BILLIE HOLIDAY

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

Chance Myself Play Work
And when you’re poor, you grow up fast.
BILLIE HOLIDAY

Fast Growth Poor Yourself
The only reason they’re out there is to see me fall into the damn orchestra pit.
BILLIE HOLIDAY

Fall Myself Reason See
You can’t copy anybody and end with anything. If you copy, it means you’re working without any real feeling.
BILLIE HOLIDAY

End Feeling Reality Work Yourself
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.
BILLIE HOLIDAY

Better Hard Kill Sing Slow Way
Sometimes it’s worse to win a fight than to lose.
BILLIE HOLIDAY

Fight Lose Time Win Worst
Them that’s got shall get, Them that’s not shall lose. So the Bible says, And it still is news. Mama may have, Papa may have, But God bless the child that’s got his own.
BILLIE HOLIDAY

Children Himself Lose
I’ve been told that nobody sings the word ‘hunger’ like I do.
BILLIE HOLIDAY

Hungry Myself Sing
I hate straight singing. I have to change a tune to my own way of doing it. That’s all I know.
BILLIE HOLIDAY

Change Hate Music Myself Sing
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

Country Forget Hell Love Privacy Yourself
The difficult I’ll do right now. The impossible will take a little while.
BILLIE HOLIDAY

Difficult Impossible Inspirational Myself Right
One day a whole damn song fell into place in my head.
BILLIE HOLIDAY

Day Head Lyrics Myself Place
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

Known Myself Stop Thinking Willing
God bless the child that’s got his own.
BILLIE HOLIDAY

Blessing Children God Independent
I never sing a song the same way twice.
BILLIE HOLIDAY

Myself Sing Song
I’m always making a comeback but nobody ever tells me where I’ve been.
BILLIE HOLIDAY

Myself Return
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.
BILLIE HOLIDAY

Clothes Weird World Yourself
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.
BILLIE HOLIDAY

Exercise Myself Night Sing Stand
I try to improvise like Les Young, Louis Armstrong or someone else I admire. What comes out is what I feel.
BILLIE HOLIDAY

Feeling Improvisation Myself

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

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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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