16 Quotes & Sayings By Billie Holiday

Billie Holiday was an American jazz singer. She was known for her distinctive vocal style, which combined scat singing, blues, jazz, ragtime, folk music, and improvisational skills. She is also noted for her controversial personal life and the tragic death of one of her sons. Billie Holiday's career spanned many decades and she became one of the best-selling musicians of the 1940s and 1950s Read more

She received numerous honors throughout her career, including Grammy Lifetime Achievement Awards in 1986 and 1987.

If I'm going to sing like someone else, then I...
1
If I'm going to sing like someone else, then I don't need to sing at all. Billie Holiday
2
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. Billie Holiday
3
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. Billie Holiday
4
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. Billie Holiday
5
If I don't have friends then I ain't nothing. Billie Holiday
6
I'm always making a comeback but nobody ever tells me where I've been. Billie Holiday
7
There's no damn business like show business - you have to smile to keep from throwing up. Billie Holiday
8
I never hurt nobody but myself and that's nobody's business but my own. Billie Holiday
9
Don't threaten me with love, baby. Let's just go walking in the rain. Billie Holiday
10
Love is like a faucet, it turns off and on. Billie Holiday
11
No two people on earth are alike, and it's got to be that way in music or it isn't music. Billie Holiday
12
I never had a chance to play with dolls like other kids. I started working when I was six years old. Billie Holiday
13
Mom and Pop were just a couple of kids when they got married. He was eighteen, she was sixteen and I was three. Billie Holiday
14
A kiss that is never tasted, is forever and ever wasted. Billie Holiday
15
Sometimes it's worse to win a fight than to lose. Billie Holiday