Top 24 Quotes by Billie Holiday

I hate straight singing. I have to change a tune to my own way of doing it. That's all I know.

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

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

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.

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

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

You can't copy anybody and end with anything. If you copy, it means you're working without any real feeling.

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

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.

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.