Explore Quotes by Billie Holiday

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

You can't copy anybody and end with anything. If you copy, it means you're working without any real feeling.

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.