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 SIMONEI demand perfection in what I do, and I practice very hard before I give a concert-sometimes three to six hours a day.
More Nina Simone Quotes
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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.
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Funk, gospel, blues is all out of slavery times, out of depression, out of sorrow.
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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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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 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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Desegregation is a joke.
NINA SIMONE -
I try to swim every damn day I can, and I’ve learned to scuba dive and snorkel.
NINA SIMONE -
What kept me sane was knowing that things would change, and it was a question of keeping myself together until they did.
NINA SIMONE -
It’s a good time for black people to be alive.
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Music is an art and art has its own rules.
NINA SIMONE -
There’s no excuse for the young people not knowing who the heroes and heroines are or were.
NINA SIMONE -
Once I understood Bach’s music, I wanted to be a concert pianist. Bach made me dedicate my life to music, and it was that teacher who introduced me to his world.
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I would like you to know, I am a doctor of music.
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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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My name sounds French but that’s just a stage name.
NINA SIMONE