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You can't help it. An artist's duty, as far as I'm concerned, is to reflect the times.
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
Duty
Help
Times
Artist
Helping
Reflect
Concerned
More quotes by 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
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
From the beginning, it has been a no-no for a black man to touch a white woman.
Nina Simone
Music has been a burden and a joy for as long as I can remember.
Nina Simone
I tell you what freedom is to me: no fear.
Nina Simone
I play piano, by ear. Yes, I write songs... and good ones.
Nina Simone
There's no excuse for the young people not knowing who the heroes and heroines are or were.
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
Nina Simone
Desegregation is a joke.
Nina Simone
I can't stand loud guitars that make me deaf.
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
Everything that happened to me as a child involved music. It was part of everyday life, as automatic as breathing.
Nina Simone
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
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 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
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 know I'm different, but I don't think about it.
Nina Simone
You don't have to live next to me / Just give me my equality.
Nina Simone
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
