Billie Holiday Quotes

I'm always making a comeback but nobody ever tells me where I've been.

I never sing a song the same way twice.

I never hurt nobody but myself and that's nobody's business but my own.

If nobody can learn from the past,
then there's no point in raking it up.

I hate straight singing. I have to change a tune to my own way of doing it. That's all I know.

And when you're poor, you grow up fast.

I try to improvise like Les Young, Louis Armstrong or someone else I admire. What comes out is what I feel.

I don't think I'm singing. I feel like I'm playing a horn ... What comes out is what I feel.

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.

When Lester plays, he almost seems to be singing; one can almost hear the words.

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.

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.

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.

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. And it can kill the people you love right along with you.

I've been told that nobody sings the word 'hunger' like I do.

People don't understand the kind of fight it takes to record what you want to record the way you want to record it.

You can't copy anybody and end with anything. 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.

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.

God has blessed you when he lets you believe in somebody.

A kiss that is never tasted, is forever and ever wasted.

One day a whole damn song fell into place in my head.

Everyones got to be different. You can't copy anybody and end up with anything. If you copy, it means you're working without any real feeling. And without feeling, whatever you do amounts to nothing.

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.

Sometimes it's worse to win a fight than to lose.

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.

You've got to have something to eat

The difficult I'll do right now. The impossible will take a little while.

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.

If I'm going to sing like someone else, then I don't need to sing at all.

The whole basis of my singing is feeling. Unless I feel something, I can't sing.

If I don't have friends, then I ain't nothing.

Mom and Pop were just a couple of kids when they got married. He was eighteen, she was sixteen and I was three.

I never had a chance to play with dolls like other kids. I started working when I was six years old.

Don't threaten me with love, baby. Let's just go walking in the rain.

If I don't have friends, then I ain't got nothing.

My Man

It cost me a lot
But there's one thing that I've got
It's my man
It's my man

Cold or wet
Tired, you bet
All of this I'll soon forget
With my man

He's not much on looks
He's no hero out of books
But I love him
Yes, I love him

Two or three girls
Has he
That he likes as well as me
But I love him

I don't know why I should
He isn't true
He beats me, too
What can I do?

Oh, my man, I love him so
He'll never know
All my life is just a spare
But I don't care
When he takes me in his arms
The world is bright
All right

What's the difference if I say
I'll go away
When I know I'll come back
On my knees someday

For whatever my man is
I'm his forevermore

God Bless The Child"

Them that's got shall have
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, that's got his own

Yes the strong get smart
While the weak ones fade
Empty pockets don't ever make the grade
Mama may have, Papa may have
But God bless the child that's got his own, that's got his own

Money, you've got lots of friends
They're crowding around your door
But when you're gone and spending ends
They don't come no more
Rich relations give crusts of bread and such
You can help yourself, but don't take too much
Mama may have, Papa may have
But God bless the child that's got his own, that's got his own

Money you've got lots of friends
They're crowding around your door
But when you're gone and spending ends
They don't come no more
Rich relations give crusts of bread and such
You can help yourself, but don't take too much
Mama may have, Papa may have
But God bless the child that's got his own, that's got his own

Here just don't worry about nothing cause he's got his own
Yes, he's got his own

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.