God bless the child that’s got his own.
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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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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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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If I don’t have friends, then I ain’t nothing.
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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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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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When you sing, always tell the truth.
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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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Somebody once said we never know what is enough until we know what’s more than enough.
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Don’t be in such a hurry.
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The whole basis of my singing is feeling. Unless I feel something, I can’t sing.
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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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If I’m going to sing like someone else, then I don’t need to sing at all.
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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’ve been told that nobody sings the word ‘hunger’ like I do.
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If nobody can learn from the past, then there’s no point in raking it up.
BILLIE HOLIDAY