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

More quotes by Nina Simone

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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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You don't have to live next to me / Just give me my equality.
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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
Nina Simone
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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
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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.
Nina Simone
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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.
Nina Simone
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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
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The Beatles are lucky, very lucky. But what has happened to them has nothing to do with them, in a sense. They came along at the right time. Attention was focused on them. They've had the chance to grow in almost any direction they wanted. Very lucky. They are not exceptionally talented.
Nina Simone
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This is the world you have made yourself, now you have to live in it.
Nina Simone
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Anything human can be felt through music, which means that there is no limit to the creating that can be done with music. You can take the same phrase from any song and cut it up so many different ways - it's infinite. It's like God... you know?
Nina Simone
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Everything that happened to me as a child involved music. It was part of everyday life, as automatic as breathing.
Nina Simone
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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.
Nina Simone
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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.
Nina Simone
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It's a good time for black people to be alive.
Nina Simone
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Desegregation is a joke.
Nina Simone
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I love to travel to hear different kinds of music.
Nina Simone
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I try to swim every damn day I can, and I've learned to scuba dive and snorkel.
Nina Simone
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Theory and harmony broadened my mind in music. I know what music is made of.
Nina Simone
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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?
Nina Simone
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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.
Nina Simone