You've got to have something to eat and a little love in your life before you can hold still for any damn body's sermon on how to behave.
Billie HolidayRead
I joined Count Basie's band to make a little money and to see the world. For two years I didn't see anything but the inside of a Blue Goose bus, and I never got to send home a quarter.
Interpretation
The quote reflects the realities of pursuing dreams, revealing the contrast between expectations and actual experiences.
Billie Holiday's quote expresses the irony of her early career in music. She joined Count Basie's band with the hope of earning money and exploring the world, but instead found herself confined to the unglamorous life of touring on a bus, unable to fulfill her financial expectations or experience the adventures she sought.
In practice
Using this quote in a speech about the sacrifices artists make for their craft.
You've got to have something to eat and a little love in your life before you can hold still for any damn body's sermon on how to behave.
One day a whole damn song fell into place in my head.
I'm always making a comeback but nobody ever tells me where I've been.
A kiss that is never tasted, is forever and ever wasted.
Don't threaten me with love, baby. Let's just go walking in the rain.
Sometimes it's worse to win a fight than to lose.
Minneapolis just embraced me. There are a lot of weirdos here. It's awesome, because I'm a weirdo. Thankfully, the city embraced me with open arms. A lot about Minneapolis helped carve my musicality and open my eyes. The whole town is so open-minded compared to like, you know, Texas.
They're powerful, those songs. At times they've been my only way back, the only door out of the dark, bad places the black dog calls home.
Jazz has the power to make men forget their differences and come together... Jazz is the personification of transforming overwhelmingly negative circumstances into freedom, friendship, hope, and dignity.
It pulled me like a magnet, jazz did, because it was a way that I could express myself.
It (jazz) isn't like it used to be. The guys aren't together. They're all separated. Individuals now. Bird was a symbol. It was a clique, a clique of people. Who all believed in one thing: gettin' high. And playin'.
When you break out the acoustic guitar, the words are the focal point unless you're the Jimi Hendrix of the acoustic guitar. So the words have to have meaning.
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