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 SIMONESince I was three I’ve been playing the piano. I’ve been onstage.
More Nina Simone Quotes
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You can’t help it. An artist’s duty, as far as I’m concerned, is to reflect the times.
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I’m a real rebel with a cause.
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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 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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My name sounds French but that’s just a stage name.
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It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day and I’m feeling good.
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Since I was three I’ve been playing the piano. I’ve been onstage.
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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 know I’m different, but I don’t think about it.
NINA SIMONE -
This is the world you have made yourself, now you have to live in it.
NINA SIMONE -
Theory and harmony broadened my mind in music. I know what music is made of.
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If I get an idea I put it on tape and somebody else writes it out.
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It was always Marx, Lenin, and revolution – real girl’s talk.
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I would like you to know, I am a doctor of music.
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What is love but a prelude to sorrow with heartache ahead for your goal.
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There’s no excuse for the young people not knowing who the heroes and heroines are or were.
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I love the classics but there are many new ideas to be made into reality. I’d rather be concerned with my own thing. There are many masters of classical piano so I’ll leave it to them.
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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.
NINA SIMONE -
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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To be young, gifted and black!
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You have to learn to get up from the table when love is not being served.
NINA SIMONE -
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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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.
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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Music is a gift and a burden I’ve had since I can remember who I was.
NINA SIMONE -
Everything that happened to me as a child involved music. It was part of everyday life, as automatic as breathing.
NINA SIMONE