I was not reluctant to become a singer. Singing has been an activity I’ve done my whole life, without thought.
NINA SIMONEI 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.
More Nina Simone Quotes
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My singing, if you want to call it that is merely another medium of expression. Just an instrument I play. That’s how I see my voice.
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What is love but a prelude to sorrow with heartache ahead for your goal.
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Greed has driven the world crazy. And I think I’m lucky that I have a place over here that I can call home.
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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.
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To be young, gifted and black!
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It is difficult to retain your standards with the pressure of trying to make money, which always has its rules. It’s hard to walk the tightrope of doing what you think is your best and making money at it.
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Music is an art and art has its own rules.
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I have a cultured manner of speaking.
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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.
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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.
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I was always a politician from the day the civil rights people chose me as their protest singer.
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Since I was three I’ve been playing the piano. I’ve been onstage.
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You can’t be different if you look at it. Being gifted is different. I had that in my piano playing. I’m very thankful for that. I’m very aware of that. The style and what I fed is just me. I never worked at it. It just happened.
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It’s a good time for black people to be alive.
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That’s a very high goal to have, study eight hours a day to be a concert pianist.
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Through music you can become sad, joyful, loving, you can learn. You can learn mathematics, touch, pacing Oh my God! Ooh Wow You can see colors through music. Anything!
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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.
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I try to swim every damn day I can, and I’ve learned to scuba dive and snorkel.
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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.
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Music is a gift and a burden I’ve had since I can remember who I was.
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It’s time to take a look at my failures and stop calling them successes. Now I can start working at something that can use me best.
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My job is not done. I address my songs now to the third world. I am popular all over Asia and Africa and the Middle East, not to speak of South Africa, where I’m trying to go to see Nelson Mandela.
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I’m a real rebel with a cause.
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If I want to take a particular form of blues somewhere else I have the equipment to do it but I never even thought of it.
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I look forward to doing my own show, not someone else’s. That’s always been my dream.
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I tell you what freedom is to me: no fear.
NINA SIMONE