Billie Holiday quotes: wise famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Billie Holiday

Billie Holiday Famous Quotes & Sayings

Discover top inspirational quotes from Billie Holiday on Wise Famous Quotes.

Don't be in such a hurry.

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

Somebody once said we never know what is enough until we know what's more than enough.

I never sing a song the same way twice.

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

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

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

When you sing, always tell the truth.

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.

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

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

I can only sing songs my way. I don't know any other way.

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

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

The only reason they're out there is to see me fall into the damn orchestra pit.

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.

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

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

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.

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

Love is like a faucet: it turns on and off.

There's no damn business like show business - you have to smile to keep from throwing up.

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

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

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

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

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