Quote

Since I was three I've been playing the piano. I've been onstage.

Nina Simone

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Onstage
Piano
Playing
Since
Three

More quotes by Nina Simone

Image
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
Image
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
Image
Music has been a burden and a joy for as long as I can remember.
Nina Simone
Image
I'm a nut for Bach as a composer.
Nina Simone
Image
Theory and harmony broadened my mind in music. I know what music is made of.
Nina Simone
Image
Jazz is a white term to define black people. My music is black classical music.
Nina Simone
Image
Jazz is not just music, it's a way of life, it's a way of being, a way of thinking.
Nina Simone
Image
It is difficult to retain your standards with the pressure of trying to make money, which always has its rules...It's hard to walk the tightrope of doing what you think is your best and making money at it.
Nina Simone
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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
Image
What is love but a prelude to sorrow...with heartache ahead for your goal.
Nina Simone
Image
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
Image
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
Image
I try to swim every damn day I can, and I've learned to scuba dive and snorkel.
Nina Simone
Image
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
Image
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
Image
I look forward to doing my own show, not someone else's. That's always been my dream.
Nina Simone
Image
I feel what they feel. And people who listen to me know that, and it makes them feel like they're not alone.
Nina Simone
Image
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
Nina Simone