“I've been told that nobody sings the word "hunger" like I do. Or the word "love."”

— Billie Holiday, book Lady Sings the Blues

Source: Lady Sings the Blues (1956), Ch. 22.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "I've been told that nobody sings the word "hunger" like I do. Or the word "love."" by Billie Holiday?

Billie Holiday26

American jazz singer and songwriter 1915–1959

Related quotes

“I love words very much. I've always loved to talk, and I've always love words — the words that rest in your mouth, what words mean and how you taste them and so on. And for me the spoken word can be used almost as a gesture.”

Martha Graham (1894–1991) American dancer and choreographer

New York Times interview (1985)

“Some people never say the words ‘I love you’, for like a child they’re longing to be told.”

Paul Simon (1941) American musician, songwriter and producer

“Some people never say those words "I love you".
It's not their style to be so bold.
Some people never say those words "I love you".
But like a child, they're longing to be told.”

Paul Simon (1941) American musician, songwriter and producer

Something So Right
Song lyrics, There Goes Rhymin' Simon (1973)

“Tony the Beat Poet says the words alone, lonely and loneliness are three of the most powerful words in the English language. I agree with Tony. Those words say that we are human; they are like the words hunger and thirst. But they are not words about the body, they are words about the soul.”

Donald Miller book Blue Like Jazz: nonreligious thoughts on Christian spirituality

Blue Like Jazz (2003, Nelson Books)

“Where do those golden rainbows end?
Why is this song so sad?
Dreaming the dreams I've dreamed my friend
Loving the love I love
To love is just a word I've heard when things are being said
Stories my poor head has told me cannot stand the cold
And in between what might have been and what has come to pass
A misbegotten guess alas and bits of broken glass…”

James Taylor (1948) American singer-songwriter and guitarist

"Long Ago and Far Away" · Early performance on Youtube (before he had given it a title) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuvO2Vw-M2Y <br class="br">Song lyrics, Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon (1971)

“And what is wrong with playing with words? Words love to be played with, just like children or kittens do!”

David Almond book My Name Is Mina

Source: My Name Is Mina

“I've been very poorly but now I feel prime,
I've been out today for the very first time.
I felt like a lad as I walked down the road,
Then I met Old Jones and he said, "Well I'm blowed!
My word you do look queer!
My word you do look queer!
Oh, dear! You look dreadful: you've had a near shave,
You look like a man with one foot in the grave."
I said, "Bosh! l'm better; it's true I've been ill."
He said, "I'm delighted you're better, but still,
I wish you'd a thousand for me in your will.
My word, you do look queer!"”

Stanley Holloway (1890–1982) English stage and film actor, comedian, singer, poet and monologist

My Word! You Do Look Queer!

“I'm no linguist, but I have been told that in the Russian language, there isn't even a word for freedom.”

Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American politician, 40th president of the United States (in office from 1981 to 1989)

“I don’t like the word "allegorical", I don’t like the word "symbolic", the word I really like is "mythic" and people always think that means "full of lies" when what it really means is full of a truth that cannot be told in any other way but a story.”

William Golding (1911–1993) British novelist, poet, playwright and Nobel Prize for Literature laureate

Interview in regard to his work Rites of Passage, quoted in The Dreams of William Golden, BBC Arena (2012)

“I loved words. I love to sing them and speak them and even now, I must admit, I have fallen into the joy of writing them.”

Anne Rice (1941) American writer

“I've been told that nobody sings the word "hunger" like I do. Or the word "love."”

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Billie Holiday26

Related quotes

Related topics