Theory and harmony broadened my mind in music. I know what music is made of.
NINA SIMONEWhen a child is gifted, people try to help that child.
More Nina Simone Quotes
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Since I was three I’ve been playing the piano. I’ve been onstage.
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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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It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day and I’m feeling good.
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How can you be an artist and not reflect the times?
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From the beginning, it has been a no-no for a black man to touch a white woman.
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I don’t like rap music at all. I don’t think it’s music. It’s just a beat and rapping.
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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 a white term to define black people. My music is black classical music.
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I do love to sing Jacques Brel songs, intensely. I get terribly excited, just by reading a couple of lines in any one of his songs.
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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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It’s a good time for black people to be alive.
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Funk, gospel, blues is all out of slavery times, out of depression, out of sorrow.
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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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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.
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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.
NINA SIMONE