Jazz is not just music, it’s a way of life, it’s a way of being, a way of thinking the new inventive phrases we make up to describe things – all that to me is jazz just as much as the music we play.
NINA SIMONEWhen a child is gifted, people try to help that child.
More Nina Simone Quotes
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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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How can you be an artist and not reflect the times?
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You have to learn to get up from the table when love is not being served.
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I feel what they feel. And people who listen to me know that, and it makes them feel like they’re not alone.
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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 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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It was always Marx, Lenin, and revolution – real girl’s talk.
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What kept me sane was knowing that things would change, and it was a question of keeping myself together until they did.
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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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When a child is gifted, people try to help that child.
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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 know I’m different, but I don’t think about it.
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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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It’s logical that people from bad times will reflect their feelings in their communication. Music is part of the communication. If you lived it, you can do it.
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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.
NINA SIMONE