I demand perfection in what I do, and I practice very hard before I give a concert-sometimes three to six hours a day.
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 was not reluctant to become a singer. Singing has been an activity I’ve done my whole life, without thought.
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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.
NINA SIMONE -
Music is the center of my life.
NINA SIMONE -
Through music you can become sad, joyful, loving, you can learn. You can learn mathematics, touch, pacing Oh my God! Ooh Wow You can see colors through music. Anything!
NINA SIMONE -
Music is an art and art has its own rules.
NINA SIMONE -
How can you be an artist and not reflect the times?
NINA SIMONE -
I’m a real rebel with a cause.
NINA SIMONE -
To most white people, jazz means black and jazz means dirt, and that’s not what I play. I play black classical music.
NINA SIMONE -
Everything that happened to me as a child involved music. It was part of everyday life, as automatic as breathing.
NINA SIMONE -
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.
NINA SIMONE -
I don’t like to go to strange places. I was in Italy for about five hours on my way to Africa.
NINA SIMONE -
I tell you what freedom is to me: no fear.
NINA SIMONE -
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.
NINA SIMONE -
To be young, gifted and black!
NINA SIMONE -
I love the classics but there are many new ideas to be made into reality. I’d rather be concerned with my own thing. There are many masters of classical piano so I’ll leave it to them.
NINA SIMONE






