Quotes by Billie Holiday

“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.”

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

“In this country, dont forget, a habit is no damn private hell. Theres no solitary confinement outside of jail. A habit is hell for those you love. And in this country its the worst kind of hell for...”

“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 ri...”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“If I don't have friends then I ain't nothing.”

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

“There's no damn business like show business - you have to smile to keep from throwing up.”

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

“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 ...”

“If I don't have friends then I ain't nothing.”

“[I]t takes a bad woman to be a good godmother.”

“Who love my man, I'm a liar if I say I don'tBut I'll quit my man, I'm a liar if I say I wont.”

“I've been your slaveEver since I've been your babeBut before I be your dog I'll see you in your grave.”