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" 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

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" I'll tell you what freedom is to me: no fear. I mean really, no fear! "

" 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

Voice

World

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

" Desegregation is a joke. "

Nina Simone

Joke

" I didn't get interested in music. It was a gift from God. "

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

" 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. "

" I'm a real rebel with a cause. "

" 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. "

" To me, we are the most beautiful creatures in the whole world. Black people. And I mean that in every sense. "

Nina Simone

World

People

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

" To most white people, jazz means black and jazz means dirt, and that's not what I play. I play black classical music. "

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

" I'm not a blues singer, I'm a diva. "

" All the time, there was the weight of my community's expectations on my shoulders. "

" 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. "

" The protest years were over, not just for me but for a whole generation, and in music, just like in politics, many of the greatest talents were dead or in exile, and their place was filled by third-rate imitators. "

" Sometimes I sound like gravel, and sometimes I sound like coffee and cream. "

" There's no excuse for the young people not knowing who the heroes and heroines are or were. "

" 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. "

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

" 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. "

" 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. "

" It's an artist's duty to reflect the times in which we live. "

" My daughter is in more competition with me. I never wanted to be bigger than my mother or to challenge her. "

" You get racism crossing the street; it's in the very fabric of American society. "

" I wasn't a jazz player, but a classical musician, and I improvised arrangements of popular songs using classical motifs. "

" 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

Listen

You

" When I'm on that stage, I assume honor. I assume compensation, and I should. "

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

Nina Simone

Beat

Think