If I’m going to sing like someone else, then I don’t need to sing at all.
BILLIE HOLIDAYYou 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.
More Billie Holiday Quotes
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I can only sing songs my way. I don’t know any other way.
BILLIE HOLIDAY -
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.
BILLIE HOLIDAY -
God bless the child that’s got his own.
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 -
And when you’re poor, you grow up fast.
BILLIE HOLIDAY -
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.
BILLIE HOLIDAY -
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 -
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 -
I’ve been told that nobody sings the word ‘hunger’ like I do.
BILLIE HOLIDAY -
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.
BILLIE HOLIDAY -
I never had a chance to play with dolls like other kids. I started working when I was six years old.
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 I don’t have friends, then I ain’t nothing.
BILLIE HOLIDAY -
When Lester plays, he almost seems to be singing; one can almost hear the words.
BILLIE HOLIDAY -
I never sing a song the same way twice.
BILLIE HOLIDAY