Quote

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

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
Done
Rhythm
Work
Performances
Kind
Kinds
Make
Concepts
Things
Record
People
Records
Rhythms
Change
Chords
Whole
Performance

More quotes by 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
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
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 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.
Nina Simone
Image
It's a good time for black people to be alive.
Nina Simone
Image
I don't like drug addicts and she sounds like a cat.
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
I don't like to go to strange places.
Nina Simone
Image
I was not reluctant to become a singer. Singing has been an activity I've done my whole life, without thought.
Nina Simone
Image
To be young, gifted and black!
Nina Simone
Image
There's no excuse for the young people not knowing who the heroes and heroines are or were.
Nina Simone
Image
That's a very high goal to have, study eight hours a day to be a concert pianist.
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
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
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.
Nina Simone
Image
Music is one of the ways by which you can know everything which is going on in the world. You can feel... through music... Whew... you can feel the vibrations of everybody in the world at any given moment.
Nina Simone
Image
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
Image
I'm sorry that I did not become the world's first black classic pianist. I think I would have been happier.
Nina Simone
Image
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