How can you be an artist and not reflect the times?
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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You’ve got to learn to leave the table When love’s no longer being served”.
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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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Music is a gift and a burden I’ve had since I can remember who I was.
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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 -
I look forward to doing my own show, not someone else’s. That’s always been my dream.
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You don’t have to live next to me / Just give me my equality.
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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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My name sounds French but that’s just a stage name.
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I demand perfection in what I do, and I practice very hard before I give a concert-sometimes three to six hours a day.
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You have to learn to get up from the table when love is not being served.
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It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day and I’m feeling good.
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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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When a child is gifted, people try to help that child.
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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 think the rich will eventually have to cave in too, because the economic situation around the world is not gonna tolerate the United States being on top forever.
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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 would like you to know, I am a doctor of music.
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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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Jazz is a white term to define black people. My music is black classical music.
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Music is the center of my life.
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I think the rich are too rich and the poor are too poor. I don’t think the black people are going to rise at all; I think most of them are going to die.
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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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Music is an art and art has its own rules.
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How do you explain what it feels like to get on the stage and make poetry that you know sinks into the hearts and souls of people who are unable to express it.
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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.
NINA SIMONE