"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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Quote collection
Nina Simone quotes (page 2 of 6)
108 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"Music is an art and art has its own rules. And one of them is that you must pay more attention to it than anything else in the world, if you are going to be true to yourself. And if you don't do it - and you are an artist - it punishes you."
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"To be young, gifted and black!"
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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."
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"I'm a real rebel with a cause."
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"I'm just human, I have faults like anyone"
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"I know I'm different, but I don't think about it."
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"We have ordered things so long in a certain way, we are numb. Nobody dares question it. This is what is wrong, symbolically, with America."
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"I feel more alive now than I ever have in my life. I have a chance to live, as I've dreamed."
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"It doesn't matter to me what is going on today because my music encompasses every kind of mood that exists in human beings. That's my stick."
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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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"It's logical that people from bad times will reflect their feelings in their communication. Music is part of the communication. If you lived it, you can do it."
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"I applied for a scholarship to Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. I knew I was good enough, but they turned me down. And it took me about six months to realize it was because I was black. I never really got over that jolt of racism at the time."
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"It's a good time for black people to be alive."
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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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"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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"What is love but a prelude to sorrow...with heartache ahead for your goal."
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"It's time to take a look at my failures and stop calling them successes. Now I can start working at something that can use me best."
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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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"Desegregation is a joke."
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