X

Sort by

Quote length

Sentiment

Change font

Change background

Nina Simone Inspirational Quotes (62)

Page 1 of 3
Filter & Style
Image
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
Image
I don't like to go to strange places. I was in Italy for about five hours on my way to Africa.
Nina Simone
Image
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.
Nina Simone
Image
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
Image
There's no excuse for the young people not knowing who the heroes and heroines are or were.
Nina Simone
Image
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
Image
From the beginning, it has been a no-no for a black man to touch a white woman.
Nina Simone
Image
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
Image
I was not reluctant to become a singer. Singing has been an activity I've done my whole life, without thought.
Nina Simone
Image
I believe the time will come when the whole definition of pop music will change. It will get to the point where a song will not be a good song until it has a high level of creativity in writing and performance. In other words, in order to be popular, songs will have to meet these high standards.
Nina Simone
Image
This is the world you have made yourself, now you have to live in it.
Nina Simone
Image
I had heard blues and jazz all my life but I was never aware that it was associated with nightclubs and drinking.
Nina Simone
Image
It is difficult to retain your standards with the pressure of trying to make money, which always has its rules...It's hard to walk the tightrope of doing what you think is your best and making money at it.
Nina Simone
Image
I can't stand loud guitars that make me deaf.
Nina Simone
Image
Anything human can be felt through music, which means that there is no limit to the creating that can be done with music. You can take the same phrase from any song and cut it up so many different ways - it's infinite. It's like God... you know?
Nina Simone
Image
That's a very high goal to have, study eight hours a day to be a concert pianist.
Nina Simone
Image
I play piano, by ear. Yes, I write songs... and good ones.
Nina Simone
Image
My love is like the wind and wild is the wind. Give me more than one caress, satisfy my hungriness. Let the wind blow through your heart for wild is the wind.
Nina Simone
Image
Many times I feel different like a different person.
Nina Simone
Image
When I choose material for an album all these songs I grew up with pour into my head.
Nina Simone
Image
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
Image
Desegregation is a joke.
Nina Simone
Image
Everything that happened to me as a child involved music. It was part of everyday life, as automatic as breathing.
Nina Simone
Image
I do not believe in mixing of the races. You can quote me. I don't believe in it, and I never have. I've never changed. I've never changed my hair. I've never changed my color, I have always been proud of myself, and my fans are proud of me for remaining the way I've always been. I married a white man one time, but he was a creep
Nina Simone
Previous
Next