How can you be an artist and not reflect the times?
NINA SIMONEJazz is a white term to define black people. My music is black classical music.
More Nina Simone Quotes
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I was not reluctant to become a singer. Singing has been an activity I’ve done my whole life, without thought.
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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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When a child is gifted, people try to help that child.
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Music has been a burden and a joy for as long as I can remember.
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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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That’s a very high goal to have, study eight hours a day to be a concert pianist.
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Jazz is not just music, it’s a way of life, it’s a way of being, a way of thinking.
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It’s a good time for black people to be alive.
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I know I’m different, but I don’t think about it.
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Funk, gospel, blues is all out of slavery times, out of depression, out of sorrow.
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My name sounds French but that’s just a stage name.
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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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I try to swim every damn day I can, and I’ve learned to scuba dive and snorkel.
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Since I was three I’ve been playing the piano. I’ve been onstage.
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It doesn’t matter to me what is going on today because my music encompasses every kind of mood that exists in human beings. That’s my stick.
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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.
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Jazz is not just music, it’s a way of life, it’s a way of being, a way of thinking the new inventive phrases we make up to describe things – all that to me is jazz just as much as the music we play.
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I feel more alive now than I ever have in my life. I have a chance to live, as I’ve dreamed.
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I had heard blues and jazz all my life but I was never aware that it was associated with nightclubs and drinking.
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I have a cultured manner of speaking.
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Many times I feel different like a different person.
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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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Birds flying high you know how I feel Sun in the sky you know how I feel Breeze driftin’ on by you know how I feel And this old world is a new world And a bold world For me And I’m feeling good I’m feeling good.
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Music is an art and art has its own rules.
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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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There’s no excuse for the young people not knowing who the heroes and heroines are or were.
NINA SIMONE