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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 Holiday
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Billie Holiday
Age: 44 †
Born: 1915
Born: April 7
Died: 1959
Died: July 17
Actor
Author
Autobiographer
Composer
Jazz Singer
Musician
Singer
Singer-Songwriter
Songwriter
Philadelphia
Pennsylvania
Lady Day
Eleanora Fagan Gough
Eleanora Harris
Eleanora Fagan
Little
Sermons
Something
Behave
Love
Damn
Life
Hold
Stills
Still
Littles
Body
Sermon
More quotes by Billie Holiday
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.
Billie Holiday
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.
Billie Holiday
I can only sing songs my way. I don't know any other way.
Billie Holiday
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.
Billie Holiday
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
You can't copy anybody and end with anything. If you copy, it means you're working without any real feeling.
Billie Holiday
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.
Billie Holiday
If nobody can learn from the past, then there's no point in raking it up.
Billie Holiday
Don't be in such a hurry.
Billie Holiday
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.
Billie Holiday
One day a whole damn song fell into place in my head.
Billie Holiday
All dope can do for you is kill you... the long hard way. And it can kill the people you love right along with you.
Billie Holiday
When Lester plays, he almost seems to be singing one can almost hear the words.
Billie Holiday
I hate straight singing. I have to change a tune to my own way of doing it. That's all I know.
Billie Holiday
I never sing a song the same way twice.
Billie Holiday
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.
Billie Holiday
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.
Billie Holiday
I'm always making a comeback but nobody ever tells me where I've been.
Billie Holiday
And when you're poor, you grow up fast.
Billie Holiday
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.
Billie Holiday
