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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
Poor
Black
Going
Think
Thinking
People
Rise
Rich
Dies

More quotes by Nina Simone

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To be young, gifted and black!
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I love the classics but there are many new ideas to be made into reality. I'd rather be concerned with my own thing. There are many masters of classical piano so I'll leave it to them.
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Music has been a burden and a joy for as long as I can remember.
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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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You don't have to live next to me / Just give me my equality.
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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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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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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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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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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 feel what they feel. And people who listen to me know that, and it makes them feel like they're not alone.
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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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It's a good time for black people to be alive.
Nina Simone
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I don't like drug addicts and she sounds like a cat.
Nina Simone
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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 was not reluctant to become a singer. Singing has been an activity I've done my whole life, without thought.
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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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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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.
Nina Simone
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What is love but a prelude to sorrow...with heartache ahead for your goal.
Nina Simone