Billie Holiday

I’ve been told that nobody sings the word ‘hunger’ like I do.

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

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

You can’t copy anybody and end up with anything. If you copy, you’re working without any real feeling.

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

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.

The beauty of Jazz is that it’s malleable. People address it to suit their own personalities.

You will never know what the meaning of Jazz is if ask what it means.

What kills me is that everybody thinks I like Jazz.

Applause felt like approval and it became a drug that soothed the pain, but only temporarily.

Jazz music is our original American culture.

When you want ’em you can’t get ’em, when you’ve got ’em, you don’t want ’em.

I remember Elvis as a young man hanging around the Sun Studios. Even then, I knew this kid had a tremendous talent. He was a dynamic young boy. His phraseology, his way of looking at a song, was as unique as Sinatra’s. I was a tremendous fan, and had Elvis lived, there would have been no end to his inventiveness.

I’ve always felt rock and roll was very, very wholesome music.

One thing I like about jazz is that it emphasized doing things differently from what other people were doing.

As a young cellist I had played to an audience that had included Pablo Casals and reacted with poor, nervous playing. Casals sought me out after the concert and praised me highly, somewhat easing the pain and thinking him a very kind man.

The great jazz instrumentalists taught me how to sing and interpret a song. they showed me how a horn can have as much personality as an actor.

I was not prepared to play the role of singer in the camp of the warriors

Something just grabs you about a song.

Music activates the brain at a high level.

Jazz is not something that can be defined through blunt instruments. It is much more poetic than that.