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" There's no excuse for the young people not knowing who the heroes and heroines are or were. "
Nina Simone
Who
Heroes
Not Knowing
Related Quotes:
" 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
" 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
" 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
" Sometimes I sound like gravel, and sometimes I sound like coffee and cream. "
Nina Simone
Sometimes
Coffee
Sound
" 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
" I didn't get interested in music. It was a gift from God. "
Nina Simone
Interested
God
Gift
" 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
" 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. "
Nina Simone
Music
Generation
Politics
" 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. "
Nina Simone
Think
World
Top
" I'm not a blues singer, I'm a diva. "
Nina Simone
Singer
Diva
Blues
" 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
" When I'm on that stage, I assume honor. I assume compensation, and I should. "
Nina Simone
Stage
Compensation
Assume
" 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 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
" Slavery has never been abolished from America's way of thinking. "
Nina Simone
America
Slavery
Thinking
" From the beginning, it has been a no-no for a black man to touch a white woman. "
Nina Simone
Woman
White
Man
" 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
" 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
" 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
" 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
" Jazz is a white term to define black people. My music is black classical music. "
Nina Simone
White
Black
Jazz
" 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
" 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
" I'll tell you what freedom is to me: no fear. I mean really, no fear! "
Nina Simone
Freedom
No Fear
Mean
" All the time, there was the weight of my community's expectations on my shoulders. "
Nina Simone
Time
Shoulders
Community
" 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
" Desegregation is a joke. "
Nina Simone
Joke
" 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
" 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'm a real rebel with a cause. "
Nina Simone
Rebel
Cause
Real