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" From the beginning, it has been a no-no for a black man to touch a white woman. "
Nina Simone
Woman
White
Man
Related Quotes:
" You feel the shame, humiliation, and anger at being just another victim of prejudice, and at the same time, there's the nagging worry that maybe... you're just no good. "
Nina Simone
You
Worry
Time
" Did you know that the human voice is the only pure instrument? That it has notes no other instrument has? It's like being between the keys of a piano. The notes are there, you can sing them, but they can't be found on any instrument. That's like me. I live in between this. I live in both worlds, the black and white world. "
Nina Simone
Me
Voice
World
" 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
Feet
Train
Say
" Greed has driven the world crazy. And I think I'm lucky that I have a place over here that I can call home. "
Nina Simone
World
Think
Home
" Slavery has never been abolished from America's way of thinking. "
Nina Simone
America
Slavery
Thinking
" I think that the artists who don't get involved in preaching messages probably are happier - but you see, I have to live with Nina, and that is very difficult. "
Nina Simone
Who
You
See
" Sometimes I sound like gravel, and sometimes I sound like coffee and cream. "
Nina Simone
Sometimes
Coffee
Sound
" I wasn't a jazz player, but a classical musician, and I improvised arrangements of popular songs using classical motifs. "
Nina Simone
Songs
Popular
Player
" 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
Rise
Rich
People
" It's an artist's duty to reflect the times in which we live. "
Nina Simone
Live
Which
Artist
" At this crucial time in our lives, when everything is so desperate, when every day is a matter of survival, I don't think you can help but be involved. "
Nina Simone
Think
You
Day
" I want to shake people up so bad, that when they leave a nightclub where I've performed, I just want them to be to pieces. "
Nina Simone
Want
Bad
Leave
" 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
Play
White
Black
" When I'm on that stage, I assume honor. I assume compensation, and I should. "
Nina Simone
Stage
Compensation
Assume
" To me, we are the most beautiful creatures in the whole world. Black people. And I mean that in every sense. "
Nina Simone
Me
World
People
" My daughter is in more competition with me. I never wanted to be bigger than my mother or to challenge her. "
Nina Simone
Mother
Daughter
Competition
" You get racism crossing the street; it's in the very fabric of American society. "
Nina Simone
American
Society
Street
" 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. "
Nina Simone
Freedom
Important
Music
" I think if I were over there in America, protest music would be more important. But I'm not going. "
Nina Simone
Music
Over
Think
" What I was interested in was conveying an emotional message, which means using everything you've got inside you sometimes to barely make a note, or if you have to strain to sing, you sing. "
Nina Simone
You
Emotional
Everything
" There's no excuse for the young people not knowing who the heroes and heroines are or were. "
Nina Simone
Who
Heroes
Not Knowing
" I have to be composed; I have to be poised. I have to remember what my first piano teacher told me: 'You do not touch that piano until you are ready and until they are ready to listen to you. "
Nina Simone
Me
Listen
You
" All the time, there was the weight of my community's expectations on my shoulders. "
Nina Simone
Time
Shoulders
Community
" I don't like rap music at all. I don't think it's music. It's just a beat and rapping. "
Nina Simone
Like
Beat
Think
" I'm not a blues singer, I'm a diva. "
Nina Simone
Singer
Diva
Blues
" I flirt all the time. I like men! I don't think we can do without them. "
Nina Simone
Think
Like
Men
" 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
Man
Love Is
Music
" When I was studying... there weren't any black concert pianists. My choices were intuitive, and I had the technique to do it. People have heard my music and heard the classic in it, so I have become known as a black classical pianist. "
Nina Simone
Music
Choices
Black
" The worst thing about that kind of prejudice... is that while you feel hurt and angry and all the rest of it, it feeds you self-doubt. You start thinking, perhaps I am not good enough. "
Nina Simone
Thinking
Hurt
Good
" I'll tell you what freedom is to me: no fear. I mean really, no fear! "
Nina Simone
Freedom
No Fear
Mean