"I believe in racial memory too. I'm sure I've got ancient African blood in me that has something to do with what I am."
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Quote collection
Nina Simone quotes (page 3 of 6)
108 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"Once I understood Bach's music, I wanted to be a concert pianist. Bach made me dedicate my life to music, and it was that teacher who introduced me to his world."
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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. . . . the new inventive phrases we make up to describe things - all that to me is jazz just as much as the music we play."
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"Funk, gospel, blues is all out of slavery times, out of depression, out of sorrow."
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"How can you be an artist and not reflect the times?"
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"Jazz is a white term to define black people. My music is black classical music."
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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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"Through music you can become sad, joyful, loving, you can learn. You can learn mathematics, touch, pacing... Oh my God! Ooh... Wow... You can see colors through music. Anything!"
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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."
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"Every day has its emotional difficulties. I miss my mother whether I'm singing her music or not."
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"I'm sorry that I did not become the world's first black classic pianist. I think I would have been happier."
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"My singing, if you want to call it that is merely another medium of expression. Just an instrument I play. That's how I see my voice."
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"I am particular about the seating of the audience - also about how much money they pay - but most of all where they are seated. If I am going to sing something intimate, who am I going to sing it to?"
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"I demand perfection in what I do, and I practice very hard before I give a concert-sometimes three to six hours a day."
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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."
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"Greed has driven the world crazy. And I think I'm lucky that I have a place over here that I can call home."
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"The allusion was that I was actually naked. I loved that. It always, kind of shocked people enough that they became mine immediately."
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"That is why we fly from the inner void, since God might steal into it. It is not the pursuit of pleasure and the aversion for effort which causes sin, but fear of God. We know that we cannot see him face to face without dying, and we do not want to die."
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"Music has been a burden and a joy for as long as I can remember."
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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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