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.
Billie HolidayRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Drugs do not improve talent or skills and ultimately lead to destruction.
Billie Holiday's quote reflects a harsh truth about the impact of drugs on artistic expression and personal well-being. She emphasizes that substances like dope do not enhance one's abilities in music or any other pursuit but rather have detrimental effects that can lead to a slow decline and eventual death. It serves as a cautionary message about the illusion of enhancement provided by addictive substances.
Themes
DrugsMusicAddictionDeathTruthWarning
In practice
Example use cases
During a discussion on the impact of substance abuse in the music industry, this quote can highlight the dangers of relying on drugs for creativity.
More from Billie Holiday
All quotes →One day a whole damn song fell into place in my head.
Billie HolidayRead
I'm always making a comeback but nobody ever tells me where I've been.
Billie HolidayRead
A kiss that is never tasted, is forever and ever wasted.
Billie HolidayRead
Don't threaten me with love, baby. Let's just go walking in the rain.
Billie HolidayRead
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 HolidayRead
Similar quotes
Honesty is seldom ingratiating and often discomfiting.
Tom StoppardRead
Put aside your need for a step-by-step manual and instead realize that analogies are your best friend.
Seth GodinRead
Forgiving is not about forgetting, it's letting go of the hurt
Mary Mcleod BethuneRead
If you attack a mathematical problem directly, very often you come to a dead end, nothing you do seems to work and you feel that if only you could peer round the corner there might be an easy solution. There is nothing like having somebody else beside you, because he can usually peer round the corner.
Michael AtiyahRead
But my lord, when we addressed this issue a few years ago, didn't you argue the other side?" He said, "That's true, but when I get more evidence I sometimes change my mind. What do you do?
John Maynard KeynesRead
I feel sometimes as though I've never grown up. And that's great, because it means there are still possibilities. Nothing's free. You pay for whatever you get. But that's OK, because you can't be cheated.
Sterling HaydenRead