You can’t help it. An artist’s duty, as far as I’m concerned, is to reflect the times.
NINA SIMONEMy 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.
More Nina Simone Quotes
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You don’t have to live next to me / Just give me my equality.
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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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Music is the center of my life.
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I play piano, by ear. Yes, I write songs and good ones.
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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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I’m sorry that I did not become the world’s first black classic pianist. I think I would have been happier.
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Talent is a burden not a joy. I am not of this planet. I do not come from you. I am not like you.
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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 -
It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day and I’m feeling good.
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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 -
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!
NINA SIMONE -
Theory and harmony broadened my mind in music. I know what music is made of.
NINA SIMONE -
I would like you to know, I am a doctor of music.
NINA SIMONE -
From the beginning, it has been a no-no for a black man to touch a white woman.
NINA SIMONE -
Music is a gift and a burden I’ve had since I can remember who I was.
NINA SIMONE -
Music is one of the ways by which you can know everything which is going on in the world. You can feel through music. Whew you can feel the vibrations of everybody in the world at any given moment.
NINA SIMONE -
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 have a cultured manner of speaking.
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I don’t like to go to strange places. I was in Italy for about five hours on my way to Africa.
NINA SIMONE -
Desegregation is a joke.
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Music is an art and art has its own rules.
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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 know I’m different, but I don’t think about it.
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How can you be an artist and not reflect the times?
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This is the world you have made yourself, now you have to live in it.
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Tomorrow, I might be in a different mood and you wouldn’t recognize my voice.
NINA SIMONE