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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
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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
Play
Mean
Classical
People
Dirt
Jazz
White
Means
Black
Music
More quotes by Nina Simone
I can't stand loud guitars that make me deaf.
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I don't like to go to strange places.
Nina Simone
This is the world you have made yourself, now you have to live in it.
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I'm sorry that I did not become the world's first black classic pianist. I think I would have been happier.
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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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I don't like rap music at all. I don't think it's music. It's just a beat and rapping.
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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
I try to swim every damn day I can, and I've learned to scuba dive and snorkel.
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
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It's a good time for black people to be alive.
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I only knew classical music, which to me was the only true music. The only way I could survive at the bar was to mix the classical music with popular songs, and that meant I had to sing. What happened was that I discovered I had a voice plus the talent to mix classical music together with more popular songs, which at the time I detested.
Nina Simone
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
I think if I were over there in America, protest music would be more important. But I'm not going.
Nina Simone
I know I'm different, but I don't think about it.
Nina Simone
What is love but a prelude to sorrow...with heartache ahead for your goal.
Nina Simone
I look forward to doing my own show, not someone else's. That's always been my dream.
Nina Simone
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
Jazz is not just music, it's a way of life, it's a way of being, a way of thinking.
Nina Simone
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
I'm a nut for Bach as a composer.
Nina Simone
