To most white people, jazz means black and jazz means dirt, and that’s not what I play. I play black classical music.
NINA SIMONEWe have ordered things so long in a certain way, we are numb. Nobody dares question it. This is what is wrong, symbolically, with America.
More Nina Simone Quotes
-
-
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 -
Birds flying high you know how I feel Sun in the sky you know how I feel Breeze driftin’ on by you know how I feel And this old world is a new world And a bold world For me And I’m feeling good I’m feeling good.
NINA SIMONE -
That’s a very high goal to have, study eight hours a day to be a concert pianist.
NINA SIMONE -
I would like you to know, I am a doctor of music.
NINA SIMONE -
My job is not done. I address my songs now to the third world. I am popular all over Asia and Africa and the Middle East, not to speak of South Africa, where I’m trying to go to see Nelson Mandela.
NINA SIMONE -
I’m a real rebel with a cause.
NINA SIMONE -
I look forward to doing my own show, not someone else’s. That’s always been my dream.
NINA SIMONE -
Tomorrow, I might be in a different mood and you wouldn’t recognize my voice.
NINA SIMONE -
Greed has driven the world crazy. And I think I’m lucky that I have a place over here that I can call home.
NINA SIMONE -
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 -
Funk, gospel, blues is all out of slavery times, out of depression, out of sorrow.
NINA SIMONE -
Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood,” a song that was written for Simone, she confronted the band’s lead singer, Eric Burdon. “So you’re the honky,” she said, “who stole my song and got a hit out of it?
NINA SIMONE -
You can’t help it. An artist’s duty, as far as I’m concerned, is to reflect the times.
NINA SIMONE -
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 -
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