Quote

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

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

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
People
Dirt
Jazz
White
Means
Black
Music
Play
Mean
Classical

More quotes by Nina Simone

Image
What is love but a prelude to sorrow...with heartache ahead for your goal.
Nina Simone
Image
I think the rich are too rich and the poor are too poor. I don't think the black people are going to rise at all I think most of them are going to die.
Nina Simone
Image
Many times I feel different like a different person.
Nina Simone
Image
You don't have to live next to me / Just give me my equality.
Nina Simone
Image
I play piano, by ear. Yes, I write songs... and good ones.
Nina Simone
Image
I tell you what freedom is to me: no fear.
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
Everything that happened to me as a child involved music. It was part of everyday life, as automatic as breathing.
Nina Simone
Image
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
Image
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.
Nina Simone
Image
I think if I were over there in America, protest music would be more important. But I'm not going.
Nina Simone
Image
Jazz is not just music, it's a way of life, it's a way of being, a way of thinking.
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
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
Image
I feel what they feel. And people who listen to me know that, and it makes them feel like they're not alone.
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 know I'm different, but I don't think about it.
Nina Simone
Image
I can't stand loud guitars that make me deaf.
Nina Simone
Image
From the beginning, it has been a no-no for a black man to touch a white woman.
Nina Simone
Image
I don't like rap music at all. I don't think it's music. It's just a beat and rapping.
Nina Simone