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 HOLIDAYIf you copy, it means you’re working without any real feeling. No two people on earth are alike, and it’s got to be that way in music or it isn’t music.
More Billie Holiday Quotes
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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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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 never hurt nobody but myself and that’s nobody’s business but my own.
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Don’t threaten me with love, baby. Let’s just go walking in the rain.
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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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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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A kiss that is never tasted, is forever and ever wasted.
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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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There’s no damn business like show business – you have to smile to keep from throwing up.
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If nobody can learn from the past, then there’s no point in raking it up.
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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.
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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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I never sing a song the same way twice.
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God has blessed you when he lets you believe in somebody.
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The only reason they’re out there is to see me fall into the damn orchestra pit.
BILLIE HOLIDAY