Since I was three I’ve been playing the piano. I’ve been onstage.
NINA SIMONEIt 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.
More Nina Simone Quotes
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I play piano, by ear. Yes, I write songs and good ones.
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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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I would like a man now who is rich, and who can give me a boat – a sailboat. I want to own it and let him pay for it. My first love is the sea and water, not music. Music is second.
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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.
NINA SIMONE -
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 a real rebel with a cause.
NINA SIMONE -
Desegregation is a joke.
NINA SIMONE -
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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Everything that happened to me as a child involved music. It was part of everyday life, as automatic as breathing.
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.
NINA SIMONE -
There’s no excuse for the young people not knowing who the heroes and heroines are or were.
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I had spent many years pursuing excellence, because that is what classical music is all about… Now it was dedicated to freedom, and that was far more important.
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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.
NINA SIMONE -
I try to swim every damn day I can, and I’ve learned to scuba dive and snorkel.
NINA SIMONE -
It’s time to take a look at my failures and stop calling them successes. Now I can start working at something that can use me best.
NINA SIMONE






