You can’t help it. An artist’s duty, as far as I’m concerned, is to reflect the times.
NINA SIMONEThe allusion was that I was actually naked. I loved that. It always, kind of shocked people enough that they became mine immediately.
More Nina Simone Quotes
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I know I’m different, but I don’t think about it.
NINA SIMONE -
I feel more alive now than I ever have in my life. I have a chance to live, as I’ve dreamed.
NINA SIMONE -
To be young, gifted and black!
NINA SIMONE -
I would like you to know, I am a doctor of music.
NINA SIMONE -
I play piano, by ear. Yes, I write songs and good ones.
NINA SIMONE -
Music is a gift and a burden I’ve had since I can remember who I was.
NINA SIMONE -
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 don’t like drug addicts and she sounds like a cat.
NINA SIMONE -
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.
NINA SIMONE -
Talent is a burden not a joy. I am not of this planet. I do not come from you. I am not like you.
NINA SIMONE -
I’m sorry that I did not become the world’s first black classic pianist. I think I would have been happier.
NINA SIMONE -
I try to swim every damn day I can, and I’ve learned to scuba dive and snorkel.
NINA SIMONE -
Jazz is a white term to define black people. My music is black classical music.
NINA SIMONE -
I’m just human, I have faults like anyone.
NINA SIMONE -
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.
NINA SIMONE