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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

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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
Popular
Song
Third
Jobs
Thirds
Mandela
Speak
East
Nelson
Done
South
Asia
Trying
Singing
Address
World
Songs
Addresses
Africa
Middle

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It's logical that people from bad times will reflect their feelings in their communication. Music is part of the communication. If you lived it, you can do it.
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Since I was three I've been playing the piano. I've been onstage.
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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?
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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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Desegregation is a joke.
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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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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
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What is love but a prelude to sorrow...with heartache ahead for your goal.
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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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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
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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.
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I had heard blues and jazz all my life but I was never aware that it was associated with nightclubs and drinking.
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When I was studying... there weren't any black concert pianists. My choices were intuitive, and I had the technique to do it. People have heard my music and heard the classic in it, so I have become known as a black classical pianist.
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When I choose material for an album all these songs I grew up with pour into my head.
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I know I'm different, but I don't think about it.
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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 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.
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It's a good time for black people to be alive.
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You can't help it. An artist's duty, as far as I'm concerned, is to reflect the times.
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There's no excuse for the young people not knowing who the heroes and heroines are or were.
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