Billie Holiday (1915–1959) was an American jazz singer renowned for her emotive voice and profound influence on music. Rising to prominence in the 1930s and 1940s, she captivated audiences with timeless classics like “Strange Fruit” and “God Bless the Child.” Holiday’s unique vocal style and ability to convey deep emotions made her one of the most celebrated jazz musicians of her time. Despite facing personal struggles and adversity, including racism and substance abuse, her music remained a powerful expression of resilience and authenticity. Holiday’s tragic life story, coupled with her raw and honest performances, solidified her status as a cultural icon and jazz legend. Her enduring impact on music and her influence on generations of musicians continue to be felt, ensuring her legacy as one of the greatest singers of the 20th century.

Billie Holiday Quotes

1. “The difficult I’ll do right now. The impossible will take a little while.”
— Billie Holiday

2. “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

3. “Somebody once said we never know what is enough until we know what’s more than enough.”
— Billie Holiday

4. “I’m always making a comeback but nobody ever tells me where I’ve been.”
— Billie Holiday

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

6. “Don’t threaten me with love, baby. Let’s just go walking in the rain.”
— Billie Holiday

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

8. “Don’t be in such a hurry.”
— Billie Holiday

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

10. “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

11. “Sometimes it’s worse to win a fight than to lose.”
— Billie Holiday

12. “A kiss that is never tasted, is forever and ever wasted.”
— Billie Holiday

13. “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

14. “I hate straight singing. I have to change a tune to my own way of doing it. That’s all I know.”
— Billie Holiday

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

16. “You can’t copy anybody and end with anything. If you copy, it means you’re working without any real feeling.”
— Billie Holiday

17. “If I don’t have friends, then I ain’t nothing.”
— Billie Holiday

18. “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

19. “God has blessed you when he lets you believe in somebody.”
— Billie Holiday

20. “You can get in just as much trouble by being dumb and innocent as you can by breaking the law.”
— Billie Holiday

21. “If I’m going to sing like someone else, then I don’t need to sing at all.”
— Billie Holiday

22. “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

23. “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

24. “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

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

26. “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

27. “And when you’re poor, you grow up fast.”
— Billie Holiday

28. “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

29. “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

30. “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

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

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

33. “I never hurt nobody but myself and that’s nobody’s business but my own.”
— Billie Holiday

34. “I’ve been told that nobody sings the word ‘hunger’ like I do.”
— Billie Holiday

35. “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

36. “One day a whole damn song fell into place in my head.”
— Billie Holiday

37. “There’s no damn business like show business – you have to smile to keep from throwing up.”
— Billie Holiday

38. “I can only sing songs my way. I don’t know any other way.”
— Billie Holiday

39. “The only reason they’re out there is to see me fall into the damn orchestra pit.”
— Billie Holiday

40. “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

41. “If you find a tune and it’s got something to do with you, you don’t have to evolve anything. You just feel it, and when you sing it other people can feel something too.”
— Billie Holiday

42. “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

43. “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

44. “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

45. “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

46. “Imagine if the government chased sick people with diabetes, put a tax on insulin and drove it into the black market, told doctors they couldn’t treat them, and then caught them, prosecuted them for not paying their taxes, and then sent them to jail. If we did that, everyone would know we were crazy. Yet we do practically the same thing every day in the week to sick people hooked on drugs. The jails are full and the problem is getting worse every day. p153.”
— Billie Holiday

47. “I guess I’m not the only one who heard their first good jazz in a whorehouse. But I never tried to make anything of it. If I’d heard Louis and Bessie at a Girl Scout jamboree, I’d have loved it just the same.”
— Billie Holiday

48. “Tony kept my job open. He offered to backstop me with the money I needed. But it was the way he did it I’ll never forget, with love and respect, like a human being holding out his hand to someone who needed it.”
— Billie Holiday