Best 74 quotes of Nina Simone on MyQuotes

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.

As I got older though I wanted a life of my own. The classical training was very demanding and thorough. It was a very sheltered existence. Even though I heard blues and gospel on the radio sometimes, it was always back to the piano and study and give recitals.

Birds flying high you know how I feel Sun in the sky you know how I feel Breeze driftin' on by you know how I feel And this old world is a new world And a bold world For me And I'm feeling good I'm feeling good

By the time I was eight I was taking classical piano lessons and I wanted to be a concert pianist. But that didn't work out. I graduated from high school and my formal education ended.

Desegregation is a joke.

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?

Everything that happened to me as a child involved music. It was part of everyday life, as automatic as breathing.

From the beginning, it has been a no-no for a black man to touch a white woman.

Funk, gospel, blues is all out of slavery times, out of depression, out of sorrow.

Greed has driven the world crazy. And I think I'm lucky that I have a place over here that I can call home.

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.

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.

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.

I can read and arrange, but I can't write.

I can't stand loud guitars that make me deaf.

I demand perfection in what I do, and I practice very hard before I give a concert-sometimes three to six hours a day.

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.

I don't like drug addicts and she sounds like a cat.

I don't like rap music at all. I don't think it's music. It's just a beat and rapping.

I don't like to go to strange places. I was in Italy for about five hours on my way to Africa.

I don't like to go to strange places.

I feel what they feel. And people who listen to me know that, and it makes them feel like they're not alone.

If I get an idea I put it on tape and somebody else writes it out.

If I want to take a particular form of blues somewhere else I have the equipment to do it but I never even thought of it.

I had heard blues and jazz all my life but I was never aware that it was associated with nightclubs and drinking.

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.

I look forward to doing my own show, not someone else's. That's always been my dream.

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.

I love to travel to hear different kinds of music.

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

I'm a nut for Bach as a composer.

I'm a real rebel with a cause.

I'm sorry that I did not become the world's first black classic pianist. I think I would have been happier.

I only knew classical music, which to me was the only true music. The only way I could survive at the bar was to mix the classical music with popular songs, and that meant I had to sing. What happened was that I discovered I had a voice plus the talent to mix classical music together with more popular songs, which at the time I detested.

I play piano, by ear. Yes, I write songs... and good ones.

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.

I think if I were over there in America, protest music would be more important. But I'm not going.

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.

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.

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.

I try to swim every damn day I can, and I've learned to scuba dive and snorkel.

It's a good time for black people to be alive.

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.

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.

It was always Marx, Lenin, and revolution - real girl's talk.

I was always a politician from the day the civil rights people chose me as their protest singer.

I was not reluctant to become a singer. Singing has been an activity I've done my whole life, without thought.

I was reared in the church from the age of three. I've played piano since I was three. I performed at revivals and for my people around North Carolina for several years. People around town collected money to send me to school.

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.

Jazz is a white term to define black people. My music is black classical music.