Billie Holiday

I'm not afraid to die. I've been dead for years.

I learned more from the streets than I ever did from school.

I'm a survivor. I've always been a survivor.

I just want to sing, and I want to be left alone.

If I can't sing, I don't want to live.

I don't believe in happy endings. I believe in happy beginnings.

I just sing the truth.

I'm not a symbol. I'm a woman.

I've always been a loner.

I don't care what people think about me. I just do my own thing.

I've always been a rebel.

I don't have any heroes. I just have people I admire.

I'm not trying to be anybody else. I'm just trying to be me.

I've always been a fighter.

I never had a mother, never had a father, never had a home, I never had a husband. I just had me.

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

You can be up to your boobies in white satin, with gardenias in your hair and no sugar in your shoes, and still mess up.

I've been in more jails than I've had hot meals.

I hate to sing the same song the same way twice. If you can, then it ain't music.

If you copy, it means you're working without any chief — without any chief of your own.