I had heard blues and jazz all my life but I was never aware that it was associated with nightclubs and drinking.
NINA SIMONEMusic has been a burden and a joy for as long as I can remember.
More Nina Simone Quotes
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I’m a real rebel with a cause.
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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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I look forward to doing my own show, not someone else’s. That’s always been my dream.
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I feel what they feel. And people who listen to me know that, and it makes them feel like they’re not alone.
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The allusion was that I was actually naked. I loved that. It always, kind of shocked people enough that they became mine immediately.
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Jazz is a white term to define black people. My music is black classical music.
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This is the world you have made yourself, now you have to live in it.
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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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My name sounds French but that’s just a stage name.
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I have a cultured manner of speaking.
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How can you be an artist and not reflect the times?
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It’s a good time for black people to be alive.
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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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It’s logical that people from bad times will reflect their feelings in their communication. Music is part of the communication. If you lived it, you can do it.
NINA SIMONE -
Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood,” a song that was written for Simone, she confronted the band’s lead singer, Eric Burdon. “So you’re the honky,” she said, “who stole my song and got a hit out of it?
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You’ve got to learn to leave the table When love’s no longer being served”.
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I believe in racial memory too. I’m sure I’ve got ancient African blood in me that has something to do with what I am.
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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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Since I was three I’ve been playing the piano. I’ve been onstage.
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What kept me sane was knowing that things would change, and it was a question of keeping myself together until they did.
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When a child is gifted, people try to help that child.
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It was always Marx, Lenin, and revolution – real girl’s talk.
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I tell you what freedom is to me: no fear.
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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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Music is the center of my life.
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Many times I feel different like a different person.
NINA SIMONE