48+ Billie Holiday Quotes On Soulful, Powerful And Iconic

Billie Holiday was an American jazz singer and songwriter. She is considered one of the greatest jazz vocalists of all time and had a major influence on jazz and pop music. Her signature songs include "God Bless the Child", "Strange Fruit", and "Don't Explain". Following is our collection on famous quotes by Billie Holiday on love, soulful, powerful.

Top 10 Billie Holiday Quotes

1. 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.
2. Somebody once said we never know what is enough until we know what's more than enough.
3. 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.
4. Don't threaten me with love, baby. Let's just go walking in the rain.
5. I never had a chance to play with dolls like other kids. I started working when I was six years old.
6. 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.
7. I'm always making a comeback but nobody ever tells me where I've been.
8. Sometimes it's worse to win a fight than to lose.
9. 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.
10. If nobody can learn from the past, then there's no point in raking it up.

Billie Holiday Image Quotes

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

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

Billie Holiday Short Quotes

• Don't be in such a hurry.
• A kiss that is never tasted, is forever and ever wasted.
• There's no damn business like show business - you have to smile to keep from throwing up.
• God bless the child that's got his own.
• And when you're poor, you grow up fast.
• The only reason they're out there is to see me fall into the damn orchestra pit.
• The difficult I'll do right now. The impossible will take a little while.
• If I don't have friends, then I ain't nothing.
• God has blessed you when he lets you believe in somebody.

Billie Holiday Quotes About Love

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. — 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

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

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

Billie Holiday Quotes About Music

If you think dope is for kicks and for thrills, you're out of your mind. There are more kicks to be had in a good case of paralytic polio or by living in an iron lung. If you think you need stuff to play music or sing, you're crazy. It can fix you so you can't play nothing or sing nothing. — Billie Holiday

I can't stand to sing the same song the same way two nights in succession, let alone two years or ten years. If you can, then it ain't music, it's close-order drill or exercise or yodeling or something, not music. — Billie Holiday

No two people on earth are alike, and it's got to be that way in music or it isn't music. — Billie Holiday

When you sing, always tell the truth. — Billie Holiday

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

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

Billie Holiday Quotes About Singing

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 can't stand to sing the same song the same way two nights in succession, let alone two years or ten years. — Billie Holiday

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

I never sing a song the same way twice. — Billie Holiday

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

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

Billie Holiday Famous Quotes And Sayings

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

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

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

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. — Billie Holiday

If you think dope is for kicks and for thrills, you're out of your mind. There are more kicks to be had in a good case of paralytic polio or by living in an iron lung. — Billie Holiday

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 Holiday

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. — Billie Holiday

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

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

I think I copied my style from Louis Armstrong. Because I used to like the big volume and the big sound that Bessie Smith got when she sang ... So I liked the feeling that Louis got and I wanted the big volume that Bessie Smith got. But I found that it didn't work with me, because I didn't have a big voice. So anyway between the two of them I sorta got Billie Holiday. — 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

Life Lessons by Billie Holiday

1. Billie Holiday taught us to stay true to ourselves and our passions, no matter the obstacles in our way. She showed us that with hard work and dedication, we can achieve our dreams and make a lasting impact on the world.
2. She also reminded us that it's important to be kind and generous to those around us, and to never forget where we come from.
3. Finally, Billie Holiday taught us to never give up, even when times are tough and the odds are stacked against us.