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

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

— Billie Holiday

Who love my man, I'm a liar if I say I don't But I'll quit my man, I'm a liar if I say I wont.

— Billie Holiday

I've been your slave I'll see you in your grave.

— Billie Holiday

I ain't good looking It's going to carry me through this world.

— Billie Holiday

Lord I love my man, tell the world I do Makes me feel so blue.

— Billie Holiday

Them that's got shall get That's got his own.

— Billie Holiday

Yes, the strong gets more That's got his own.

— Billie Holiday

Money, you've got lots of friends But don't take too much.

— 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

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

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

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.

— Billie Holiday

Somebody once said we never know what is enough until we know what's more than enough.

— Billie Holiday

I've been told that nobody sings the word "hunger" like I do. Or the word "love."

— Billie Holiday

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. Everything I am and everything I want out of life goes smack back to that.

— Billie Holiday

If you think dope is for kicks and for thrills, you’re out of your mind. There are more kicks the fuck 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'm always making a comeback but nobody ever tells me where I've been.

— 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

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

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

— Billie Holiday

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

— Billie Holiday

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

— 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