19 quotes
No two people on earth are alike, and it's got to be that way in music or it isn't music.
Lady Sings the Blues (1956)
I've been told that nobody sings the word "hunger" like I do. Or the word "love."
Lady Sings the Blues (1956)
I'm always making a comeback but nobody ever tells me where I've been.
Lady Sings the Blues (1956)
Somebody once said we never know what is enough until we know what's more than enough.
Lady Sings the Blues (1956)
I'll never regret the years I'm giving, they're easy to give when you're in love, and I'm so in love!
You can be up to your boobies in white satin, with gardenias in your hair and no sugar cane for miles, but you can still be working on a plantation.
Lady Sings the Blues (1956)
Got only one heart/One heart with no spares/Must save it for loving/Somebody who cares
No More (1948)
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. Everything I am and everything I want out of life goes smack back to that.
Lady Sings the Blues (1956)
I can’t stand to sing the same song the same way two nights in succession, let alone two years or ten years. If you can, then it ain’t music, it’s close-order drill or exercise or yodeling or something, not music.
Lady Sings the Blues (1956)
I ain't good looking
And my hair ain't curls
But my mother she give me something
It's going to carry me through this world.
I've been your slave
Ever since I've been your babe
But before I be your dog
I'll see you in your grave.
Lord I love my man, tell the world I do
I love my man, tell the world I do
But when he mistreats me
Makes me feel so blue.
[I]t takes a bad woman to be a good godmother.
Who love my man, I'm a liar if I say I don't
But I'll quit my man, I'm a liar if I say I wont.
In this country, don’t forget, a habit is no damn private hell. There’s no solitary confinement outside of jail. A habit is hell for those you love. And in this country it’s the worst kind of hell for those who love you.
Lady Sings the Blues (1956)
If you think dope is for kicks and for thrills, you’re out of your mind. There are more kicks the fuck to be had in a good case of paralytic polio or by living in an iron lung. If you think you need stuff to play music or sing, you’re crazy. It can fix you so you can’t play nothing or sing nothing.
Lady Sings the Blues (1956)
Yes, the strong gets more
While the weak ones fade
Empty pockets don't ever make the grade
Mama may have, Papa may have
But God bless the child that's got his own
That's got his own.
Them that's got shall get
Them that's not shall lose
So the Bible said and it still is news
Mama may have, Papa may have
But God bless the child that's got his own
That's got his own.
Southern trees bear a strange fruit
Blood on the leaf and blood at the root
Black bodies swingin’ in the southern breeze
Strange fruit hangin’ in the poplar trees.
Misattributed Strange Fruit (1939)