The difficult I’ll do right now. The impossible will take a little while.
BILLIE HOLIDAYPeople don’t understand the kind of fight it takes to record what you want to record the way you want to record it.
More Billie Holiday Quotes
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If I don’t have friends, then I ain’t nothing.
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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 never hurt nobody but myself and that’s nobody’s business but my own.
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And when you’re poor, you grow up fast.
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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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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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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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Don’t threaten me with love, baby. Let’s just go walking in the rain.
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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.
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Sometimes it’s worse to win a fight than to lose.
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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.
BILLIE HOLIDAY -
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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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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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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I’m always making a comeback but nobody ever tells me where I’ve been.
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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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There’s no damn business like show business – you have to smile to keep from throwing up.
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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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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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I never sing a song the same way twice.
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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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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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When you sing, always tell the truth.
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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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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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Don’t be in such a hurry.
BILLIE HOLIDAY