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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
Music
Play
Mean
Classical
People
Dirt
Jazz
White
Means
Black

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Music has been a burden and a joy for as long as I can remember.
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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 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.
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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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You don't have to live next to me / Just give me my equality.
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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.
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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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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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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 look forward to doing my own show, not someone else's. That's always been my dream.
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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.
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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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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.
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This is the world you have made yourself, now you have to live in it.
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I'm a nut for Bach as a composer.
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I love to travel to hear different kinds of music.
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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.
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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.
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What is love but a prelude to sorrow...with heartache ahead for your goal.
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