Billie Holiday

I'm not supposed to be a singer. I'm supposed to be a whore.

You can't be a great singer if you don't know life.

I ain't got no education, but I got sense.

It's like being a hooker. You stand there and you sing, and then you get paid. That's all it is.

I don't think I'm singing. I feel like I'm playing a horn. I try to get the sound of a horn.

When you're singing, you're singing about life, about what's happening to you.

I've got to be myself, and I can't be myself unless I sing what I feel.

It's not the notes you play, it's the notes you don't play.

I don't need no one to tell me how to sing. I just open my mouth and everything comes out.

I think it's a big mistake to try to please everybody.

I don't think I'm a tragic figure. I think I'm a happy woman. I'm a very happy woman.

I've been called a lot of names in my life, but I've never been called a liar.

It's a wonder I didn't get killed, the way I carried on.

I don't know nothing about music. I just sing.

I'd rather be a junkie than a square.

I don't sing anything I don't believe in.

I never had a publicist. I never had a press agent. I just had my voice.

I never played a note I didn't mean.

There are some things you can't get over, and some things you can't get back.

I've been through a lot of changes, but I'm still the same old Billie.