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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

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Nina Simone
Age: 75 †
Born: 1933
Born: February 21
Died: 2008
Died: April 21
Composer
Jazz Pianist
Recording Artist
Singer
Singer-Songwriter
Tryon
North Carolina
Eunice Kathleen Waymon
High Priestess of Soul
Spent
Freedom
Music
Many
Important
Pursuing
Years
Classical
Dedicated
Excellence

More quotes by Nina Simone

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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
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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.
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I know I'm different, but I don't think about it.
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I tell you what freedom is to me: no fear.
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I look forward to doing my own show, not someone else's. That's always been my dream.
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Desegregation is a joke.
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This is the world you have made yourself, now you have to live in it.
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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.
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It's logical that people from bad times will reflect their feelings in their communication. Music is part of the communication. If you lived it, you can do it.
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From the beginning, it has been a no-no for a black man to touch a white woman.
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I do love to sing Jacques Brel songs, intensely. I get terribly excited, just by reading a couple of lines in any one of his songs.
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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?
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I love to travel to hear different kinds of music.
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I don't like to go to strange places.
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I don't like rap music at all. I don't think it's music. It's just a beat and rapping.
Nina Simone
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I don't like to go to strange places. I was in Italy for about five hours on my way to Africa.
Nina Simone
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That's a very high goal to have, study eight hours a day to be a concert pianist.
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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.
Nina Simone
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Everything that happened to me as a child involved music. It was part of everyday life, as automatic as breathing.
Nina Simone
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It's a good time for black people to be alive.
Nina Simone