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
What this quote means
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.
Themes
MusicDreamsIronyTouringExpectations
In practice
Example use cases
Using this quote in a speech about the sacrifices artists make for their craft.
More from Billie Holiday
All quotes →One day a whole damn song fell into place in my head.
Billie HolidayRead
I'm always making a comeback but nobody ever tells me where I've been.
Billie HolidayRead
A kiss that is never tasted, is forever and ever wasted.
Billie HolidayRead
Don't threaten me with love, baby. Let's just go walking in the rain.
Billie HolidayRead
Sometimes it's worse to win a fight than to lose.
Billie HolidayRead
Similar quotes
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.
LizzoRead
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.
Johnny CashRead
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.
Quincy JonesRead
It pulled me like a magnet, jazz did, because it was a way that I could express myself.
Herbie HancockRead
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'.
Charles MingusRead
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.
Chris CornellRead