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Life is short. People are not easy to know. They’re not easy to know, so if you don’t tell them how you feel, you’re not going to get anywhere, I feel.

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

Explanation Expression Feeling Poetry Soul Stage Yourself
I had spent many years pursuing excellence, because that is what classical music is all about… Now it was dedicated to freedom, and that was far more important.
NINA SIMONE

Dedication Excellence Freedom Music Myself Pursue
I had heard blues and jazz all my life but I was never aware that it was associated with nightclubs and drinking.
NINA SIMONE

Assosiation Awareness Drinking Life Music
If I get an idea I put it on tape and somebody else writes it out.
NINA SIMONE

Ideas Myself Writing
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

Awareness Different Gift Myself Thankful Work
That’s a very high goal to have, study eight hours a day to be a concert pianist.
NINA SIMONE

Goal Musician Study
You’ve got to learn to leave the table When love’s no longer being served”.
NINA SIMONE

Learning Serve Yourself
Jazz is not just music, it’s a way of life, it’s a way of being, a way of thinking.
NINA SIMONE

Life Music Thinking Way
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

Classics Love Master Myself
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.
NINA SIMONE

Blood Identity Memories Myself Race
It’s a good time for black people to be alive.
NINA SIMONE

Alive Black People Time
Tomorrow, I might be in a different mood and you wouldn’t recognize my voice.
NINA SIMONE

Different Identity Myself Recognition Voice
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 SIMONE

Description Invention Music Myself Play Thinking Way
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 SIMONE

Day Demand Myself Perfection Practice
Every day has its emotional difficulties. I miss my mother whether I’m singing her music or not.
NINA SIMONE

Day Difficult Emotional Music Myself
I think if I were over there in America, protest music would be more important. But I’m not going.
NINA SIMONE

Important Music Myself Thinking

Life is short. People are not easy to know. They’re not easy to know, so if you don’t tell them how you feel, you’re not going to get anywhere, I feel.

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Life is short. People are not easy to know. They’re not easy to know, so if you don’t tell them how you feel, you’re not going to get anywhere, I feel.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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