black
grey
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Everything that happened to me as a child involved music. It was part of everyday life, as automatic as breathing.

Nina Simone

There’s no excuse for the young people not knowing who the heroes and heroines are or were.
NINA SIMONE

Excuse Hero Known People Young
To be young, gifted and black!
NINA SIMONE

Black One Liner Young
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 Myself
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

Angry Enough Kind Prejudice Worst Yourself
Jazz is a white term to define black people. My music is black classical music.
NINA SIMONE

Black Definition Myself People
My name sounds French but that’s just a stage name.
NINA SIMONE

Home Name Sound Stage
Talent is a burden not a joy. I am not of this planet. I do not come from you. I am not like you.
NINA SIMONE

Burden Myself Planet Talent
I tell you what freedom is to me: no fear.
NINA SIMONE

Fear Freedom Myself
I made wine from the lilac tree/Put my heart in its recipe/It makes me see what I want to see/And be what I want to be.
NINA SIMONE

Myself See Tree Wine
I play piano, by ear. Yes, I write songs and good ones.
NINA SIMONE

Instrument Myself Writing
We have ordered things so long in a certain way, we are numb. Nobody dares question it. This is what is wrong, symbolically, with America.
NINA SIMONE

Dare Order Question Symbol Wrong
How can you be an artist and not reflect the times?
NINA SIMONE

Artist Reflection Time
Many times I feel different like a different person.
NINA SIMONE

Different Feeling Person Time
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

Dedication Introduction Music Myself Teacher World
Desegregation is a joke.
NINA SIMONE

Joke Segregation
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 Myself People Play

Everything that happened to me as a child involved music. It was part of everyday life, as automatic as breathing.

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Everything that happened to me as a child involved music. It was part of everyday life, as automatic as breathing.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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