Share
×
Inspirational Quotes
Authors
Professions
Topics
Tags
Quote
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
Share
Change background
T
T
T
Change font
Original
TAGS & TOPICS
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
Excellence
Spent
Freedom
Music
Many
Important
Pursuing
Years
Classical
Dedicated
More quotes by Nina Simone
Desegregation is a joke.
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
Since I was three I've been playing the piano. I've been onstage.
Nina Simone
I made wine from the lilac tree/Put my heart in its recipe/It makes me see what I want to see/And be what I want to be
Nina Simone
There are all kinds of things that can be done. You can change rhythms, you can change chords, you can change whole concepts. But it will only work, on a record or in a performance, if you can make the people buy it.
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.
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 look forward to doing my own show, not someone else's. That's always been my dream.
Nina Simone
Many times I feel different like a different person.
Nina Simone
I know I'm different, but I don't think about it.
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
I don't like to go to strange places. I was in Italy for about five hours on my way to Africa.
Nina Simone
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.
Nina Simone
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
I can't stand loud guitars that make me deaf.
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
I'm a nut for Bach as a composer.
Nina Simone
Jazz is a white term to define black people. My music is black classical music.
Nina Simone
I don't like rap music at all. I don't think it's music. It's just a beat and rapping.
Nina Simone
I don't like drug addicts and she sounds like a cat.
Nina Simone