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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.

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
Dies
Poor
Black
Going
Think
Thinking
People
Rise
Rich

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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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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?
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My love is like the wind and wild is the wind. Give me more than one caress, satisfy my hungriness. Let the wind blow through your heart for wild is the wind.
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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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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 try to swim every damn day I can, and I've learned to scuba dive and snorkel.
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You can't be different if you look at it. Being gifted is different. I had that in my piano playing. I'm very thankful for that. I'm very aware of that. The style and what I fed is just me. I never worked at it. It just happened.
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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.
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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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From the beginning, it has been a no-no for a black man to touch a white woman.
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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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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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You don't have to live next to me / Just give me my equality.
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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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Jazz is not just music, it's a way of life, it's a way of being, a way of thinking.
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What is love but a prelude to sorrow...with heartache ahead for your goal.
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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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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.
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Everything that happened to me as a child involved music. It was part of everyday life, as automatic as breathing.
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I was not reluctant to become a singer. Singing has been an activity I've done my whole life, without thought.
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