Billie Holiday

I never had a chance to play with dolls like other kids. I started working when I was 6 years old.

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

You can’t copy anybody and end with anything. If you copy, it means 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.

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

Too many jazz pianists limit themselves to a personal style, a trademark, so to speak. They confine themselves to one type of playing. I believe in using the entire piano as a single instrument capable of expressing every possible musical idea. I have no one style. I play as I feel.

I see my body as an instrument, rather than an ornament.

Give it a good go, try to have fun at it, try to pass on some good notes and some good sounds to your fans, and I don’t think you will have wasted your time.

When you’re creating your own shit, even the sky ain’t the limit.

The true value of this music lies in an artist’s individual creativity and that unique process of expression which is Jazz.

Jazz is not background music. You must concentrate in order to get the most out of it. You must absorb it.

A musician’s responsibility is to get as much of his art across to the public as possible.

Jazz music is an aural souvenir of mankind’s attempt to express the intangible, the heart, the soul, through art.

Jazz stands for freedom.

Jazz will only go where we the composers and musicians take it. It is up to us.

I’ve had the pleasure of playing with the baddest Jazz cats on the planet.

Your humanity is your instrument.

The Blues contain so much joy and sadness at the same time.

I always wanted to play the piano, and jazz appealed to me.

I can count on one hand the number of instrumental hits there have been over the last 10 years.