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Nina Simone Quotes
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Top 10 Nina Simone Quotes
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American
-
Musician
February 21
, 1933 -
April 21
, 2003
See also:
Quotes about Nina Simone
It's an artist's duty to reflect the times in which we live.
Nina Simone
Duty
Live
Artist
Reflect
I'll tell you what freedom is to me: no fear. I mean really, no fear!
Nina Simone
You
Me
Freedom
Fear
To me, we are the most beautiful creatures in the whole world. Black people. And I mean that in every sense.
Nina Simone
Most Beautiful
Beautiful
Me
People
Slavery has never been abolished from America's way of thinking.
Nina Simone
Thinking
Way
America
Never
I'm a real rebel with a cause.
Nina Simone
Real
Rebel
Cause
Jazz is a white term to define black people. My music is black classical music.
Nina Simone
Music
People
Black
White
At this crucial time in our lives, when everything is so desperate, when every day is a matter of survival, I don't think you can help but be involved.
Nina Simone
You
Time
Day
Everything
Did you know that the human voice is the only pure instrument? That it has notes no other instrument has? It's like being between the keys of a piano. The notes are there, you can sing them, but they can't be found on any instrument. That's like me. I live in between this. I live in both worlds, the black and white world.
Nina Simone
You
Me
World
Black And White
I had spent many years pursuing excellence, because that is what classical music is all about... Now it was dedicated to freedom, and that was far more important.
Nina Simone
Freedom
Music
Important
Excellence
Sometimes I sound like gravel, and sometimes I sound like coffee and cream.
Nina Simone
Coffee
Sometimes
Like
Sound
Top 10
Nina Simone
Quotes
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I don't like rap music at all. I don't think it's music. It's just a beat and rapping.
Nina Simone
Music
Think
Beat
Like
You get racism crossing the street; it's in the very fabric of American society.
Nina Simone
You
Society
Street
Racism
The worst thing about that kind of prejudice... is that while you feel hurt and angry and all the rest of it, it feeds you self-doubt. You start thinking, perhaps I am not good enough.
Nina Simone
You
Good
Angry
Thinking
Greed has driven the world crazy. And I think I'm lucky that I have a place over here that I can call home.
Nina Simone
Home
World
Crazy
Greed
Once I understood Bach's music, I wanted to be a concert pianist. Bach made me dedicate my life to music, and it was that teacher who introduced me to his world.
Nina Simone
Life
Me
Music
Teacher
There's no excuse for the young people not knowing who the heroes and heroines are or were.
Nina Simone
People
Knowing
Not Knowing
Who
The protest years were over, not just for me but for a whole generation, and in music, just like in politics, many of the greatest talents were dead or in exile, and their place was filled by third-rate imitators.
Nina Simone
Politics
Me
Music
Generation
To most white people, jazz means black and jazz means dirt, and that's not what I play. I play black classical music.
Nina Simone
Music
People
Black
White
I think the rich are too rich and the poor are too poor. I don't think the black people are going to rise at all; I think most of them are going to die.
Nina Simone
People
Die
Black
Rise
I flirt all the time. I like men! I don't think we can do without them.
Nina Simone
Men
Time
Think
Like
What I was interested in was conveying an emotional message, which means using everything you've got inside you sometimes to barely make a note, or if you have to strain to sing, you sing.
Nina Simone
You
Everything
Sometimes
Inside
As a political weapon, it has helped me for 30 years defend the rights of American blacks and third-world people all over the world, to defend them with protest songs. To move the audience to make them conscious of what has been done to my people around the world.
Nina Simone
Me
Political
World
People
I would like a man now who is rich, and who can give me a boat - a sailboat. I want to own it and let him pay for it. My first love is the sea and water, not music. Music is second.
Nina Simone
Love
Man
Sea
Me
All the time, there was the weight of my community's expectations on my shoulders.
Nina Simone
Time
Community
Expectations
Shoulders
I think that the artists who don't get involved in preaching messages probably are happier - but you see, I have to live with Nina, and that is very difficult.
Nina Simone
You
Difficult
Think
Live
I try to swim every damn day I can, and I've learned to scuba dive and snorkel.
Nina Simone
Day
Try
Damn
I Can
This may be a dream, but I'll say it anyway: I was supposed to be married last year, and I bought a gown. When I meet Nelson Mandela, I shall put on this gown and have the train of it removed and put aside, and kiss the ground that he walks on and then kiss his feet.
Nina Simone
Feet
Kiss
Dream
Ground
I think the rich will eventually have to cave in too, because the economic situation around the world is not gonna tolerate the United States being on top forever.
Nina Simone
World
Rich
Will
Situation
I wasn't a jazz player, but a classical musician, and I improvised arrangements of popular songs using classical motifs.
Nina Simone
Jazz
Musician
Songs
Classical
When I'm on that stage, I assume honor. I assume compensation, and I should.
Nina Simone
Honor
Stage
Compensation
Should
You feel the shame, humiliation, and anger at being just another victim of prejudice, and at the same time, there's the nagging worry that maybe... you're just no good.
Nina Simone
You
Good
Time
Anger
I'm not a blues singer, I'm a diva.
Nina Simone
Diva
Blues
Singer
I have to be composed; I have to be poised. I have to remember what my first piano teacher told me: 'You do not touch that piano until you are ready and until they are ready to listen to you.
Nina Simone
You
Me
Teacher
Remember
I want to shake people up so bad, that when they leave a nightclub where I've performed, I just want them to be to pieces.
Nina Simone
Where
People
Bad
Leave
When I was studying... there weren't any black concert pianists. My choices were intuitive, and I had the technique to do it. People have heard my music and heard the classic in it, so I have become known as a black classical pianist.
Nina Simone
Music
People
Black
Choices
My daughter is in more competition with me. I never wanted to be bigger than my mother or to challenge her.
Nina Simone
Me
Competition
Never
Daughter
Desegregation is a joke.
Nina Simone
Joke
I didn't get interested in music. It was a gift from God.
Nina Simone
God
Music
Gift
Get
I think if I were over there in America, protest music would be more important. But I'm not going.
Nina Simone
Music
America
Important
Think
From the beginning, it has been a no-no for a black man to touch a white woman.
Nina Simone
Man
Woman
Black
Beginning
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