Nina Simone

Nina Simone

Singer, Songwriter, Pianist

Nina Simone was a renowned singer-songwriter and civil rights activist known for her powerful music that addressed themes of racism and freedom.

Music People Thinking Song Piano Black
Born
February 21, 1933
Quotes
108
Rank
#528

Quote collection

Nina Simone quotes (page 5 of 6)

108 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.

Nina Simone Singer, Songwriter, Pianist
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"As far as piano players are concerned, Oscar Peterson is my very favorite. I also like McCoy Tyner. I think that the big jazz stars, both now and in the past...how shall I say it? These guys are as great as Bach, Beethoven; all of them. People don't know it yet. If jazz survives and is put on a pedestal as an art form, the same as classical music has been through the years, a hundred years from now the kids will know who they were, with that kind of respect."

Art Stars Kids
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Nina Simone Singer, Songwriter, Pianist
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"Since I was three I've been playing the piano. I've been onstage. My mother is an Evangelist and I used to play the piano at her revival meetings."

Mother Play Piano
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Nina Simone Singer, Songwriter, Pianist
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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."

Song Couple Reading
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Nina Simone Singer, Songwriter, Pianist
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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."

Reality Ideas Piano
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Nina Simone Singer, Songwriter, Pianist
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"I have a cultured manner of speaking."

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Nina Simone Singer, Songwriter, Pianist
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"I play piano, by ear. Yes, I write songs... and good ones."

Song Writing Play
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Nina Simone Singer, Songwriter, Pianist
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"That's a very high goal to have, study eight hours a day to be a concert pianist."

Eight Goal Study
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Nina Simone Singer, Songwriter, Pianist
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"I think if I were over there in America, protest music would be more important. But I'm not going."

Thinking America Important
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Nina Simone Singer, Songwriter, Pianist
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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."

Song Believe Writing
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Nina Simone Singer, Songwriter, Pianist
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"When a child is gifted, people try to help that child."

Children People Trying
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Nina Simone Singer, Songwriter, Pianist
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"Theory and harmony broadened my mind in music. I know what music is made of."

Mind Harmony Made
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Nina Simone Singer, Songwriter, Pianist
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"My name sounds French but that's just a stage name."

Names Sound Stage
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Nina Simone Singer, Songwriter, Pianist
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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."

People Done Records
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Nina Simone Singer, Songwriter, Pianist
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"If I get an idea I put it on tape and somebody else writes it out."

Writing Ideas Tape
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Nina Simone Singer, Songwriter, Pianist
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"Music is the center of my life."

Music Is
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Nina Simone Singer, Songwriter, Pianist
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"When I choose material for an album all these songs I grew up with pour into my head."

Song Albums Grew Up
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Nina Simone Singer, Songwriter, Pianist
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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."

Drinking Jazz Heard
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Nina Simone Singer, Songwriter, Pianist
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"The pressure of show business is on all the time and show business is a fickle business. Whatever is popular now - that's all that counts. I have to constantly re-identify myself to myself, reactivate my own standards, my own convictions about what I'm doing and why."

Fickle Pressure Conviction
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