I hate straight singing. I have to change a tune to my own way of doing it. That’s all I know.
BILLIE HOLIDAYWhen you sing, always tell the truth.
More Billie Holiday Quotes
-
-
Sometimes it’s worse to win a fight than to lose.
BILLIE HOLIDAY -
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.
BILLIE HOLIDAY -
I try to improvise like Les Young, Louis Armstrong or someone else I admire. What comes out is what I feel.
BILLIE HOLIDAY -
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.
BILLIE HOLIDAY -
Don’t threaten me with love, baby. Let’s just go walking in the rain.
BILLIE HOLIDAY -
I never hurt nobody but myself and that’s nobody’s business but my own.
BILLIE HOLIDAY -
If 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.
BILLIE HOLIDAY -
Love is like a faucet, it turns off and on.
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 -
I don’t think I ever sing the same way twice. The blues is sort of a mixed-up thing. You just have to feel it. Anything I do sing is part of my life.
BILLIE HOLIDAY -
I don’t think I’m singing. I feel like I’m playing a horn, What comes out is what I feel.
BILLIE HOLIDAY -
Lust may be in the heart, though it be not seen by others; as guests may be in the house, though they look not out at the windows.
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 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 -
And when you’re poor, you grow up fast.
BILLIE HOLIDAY