Billie Holiday Quotes

“If I'm going to sing like someone else, then I don't need to sing at all.”
― Billie Holiday

“And in the background of Early's story was her voice. Her soul. Her sadness and longing. Because when it's raining, it's always Billie Holiday. p. 81”
― Clare Vanderpool, Navigating Early

“Nonetheless, as Billie Holiday knew, it remains the case that to see blue in deeper and deeper saturation is eventually to move toward darkness.”
― Maggie Nelson, Bluets

“We have to go."

Billie looked up from her drink and said, "Speak for yourself. All I got to do is stay black and die.”
― Maya Angelou, The Heart of a Woman

“(...) pero escuchar a Billie Holiday era una tristeza hermosa que daba ganas de acostarse y llorar de felicidad (...)”
― Julio Cortázar

“All of a sudden, I wonder if Billie Holiday ever sang in front of the mirror.”
― Alicia D. Williams, Genesis Begins Again

“There's dust, a scratch in a groove,
and here we are repeating
the same two seconds of "Strange Fruit.”
― Chet'la Sebree, Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019