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" 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
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" I wasn't a jazz player, but a classical musician, and I improvised arrangements of popular songs using classical motifs. "
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" I'm a real rebel with a cause. "
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" 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. "
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You
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" Jazz is a white term to define black people. My music is black classical music. "
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White
Black
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" When I'm on that stage, I assume honor. I assume compensation, and I should. "
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Compensation
Assume
" 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. "
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" Desegregation is a joke. "
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Joke
" Slavery has never been abolished from America's way of thinking. "
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America
Slavery
Thinking
" It's an artist's duty to reflect the times in which we live. "
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Live
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" All the time, there was the weight of my community's expectations on my shoulders. "
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Time
Shoulders
Community
" 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 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
" 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
" 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. "
Nina Simone
Life
Teacher
My Life
" Sometimes I sound like gravel, and sometimes I sound like coffee and cream. "
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Sometimes
Coffee
Sound
" 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
" 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
" 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
" 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
" 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
" As a political weapon, it has helped me for 30 years defend the rights of American blacks and third-world people all over the world, to defend them with protest songs. To move the audience to make them conscious of what has been done to my people around the world. "
Nina Simone
People
World
American
" I'll tell you what freedom is to me: no fear. I mean really, no fear! "
Nina Simone
Freedom
No Fear
Mean
" I'm not a blues singer, I'm a diva. "
Nina Simone
Singer
Diva
Blues
" 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 try to swim every damn day I can, and I've learned to scuba dive and snorkel. "
Nina Simone
Damn
Day
Dive
" 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
" 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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Think
World
Top
" You get racism crossing the street; it's in the very fabric of American society. "
Nina Simone
American
Society
Street
" 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
" 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