I never had a chance to play with dolls like other kids. I started working when I was six years old.
BILLIE HOLIDAYI 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.
More Billie Holiday Quotes
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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.
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Love is like a faucet, it turns off and on.
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I never hurt nobody but myself and that’s nobody’s business but my own.
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Don’t be in such a hurry.
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The difficult I’ll do right now. The impossible will take a little while.
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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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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 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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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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And when you’re poor, you grow up fast.
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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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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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One day a whole damn song fell into place in my head.
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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.
BILLIE HOLIDAY