Nina Simone quotes

Jazz is a white term to define black people. My music is black classical music. (Nina Simone)
There's no excuse for the young people not knowing who the heroes and heroines are or were. View quote
Nina Simone
I'm a real rebel with a cause. View quote
Nina Simone
Desegregation is a joke. View quote
Nina Simone
I don't like rap music at all. I don't think it's music. It's just a beat and rapping. View quote
Nina Simone
You can't help it. An artist's duty, as far as I'm concerned, is to reflect the times. View quote
Nina Simone
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. View quote
Nina Simone
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. View quote
Nina Simone
This is the world you have made yourself, now you have to live in it. View quote
Nina Simone
You've got to learn to leave the table When love's no longer being served". View quote
Nina Simone
What kept me sane was knowing that things would change, and it was a question of keeping myself together until they did. (Nina Simone)
Slavery has never been abolished from America's way of thinking. View quote
Nina Simone
It's an artist's duty to reflect the times in which we live. View quote
Nina Simone
This may be a dream, but I'll say it anyway: I was supposed to be married last year, and I bought a gown. When I meet Nelson Mandela, I shall put on this gown and have the train of it removed and put aside, and kiss the ground that he walks on and then kiss his feet. View quote
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. View quote
Nina Simone
It was always Marx, Lenin, and revolution - real girl's talk. View quote
Nina Simone
Once I understood Bach's music, I wanted to be a concert pianist. Bach made me dedicate my life to music, and it was that teacher who introduced me to his world. View quote
Nina Simone
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. View quote
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. View quote
Nina Simone
When I was studying... there weren't any black concert pianists. My choices were intuitive, and I had the technique to do it. People have heard my music and heard the classic in it, so I have become known as a black classical pianist. View quote
Nina Simone
I try to swim every damn day I can, and I've learned to scuba dive and snorkel. (Nina Simone)
I think if I were over there in America, protest music would be more important. But I'm not going. View quote
Nina Simone
I think the rich will eventually have to cave in too, because the economic situation around the world is not gonna tolerate the United States being on top forever. View quote
Nina Simone
From the beginning, it has been a no-no for a black man to touch a white woman. View quote
Nina Simone
I tell you what freedom is to me: no fear. View quote
Nina Simone