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" When I'm on that stage, I assume honor. I assume compensation, and I should. "
Nina Simone
Stage
Compensation
Assume
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" 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 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
" All the time, there was the weight of my community's expectations on my shoulders. "
Nina Simone
Time
Shoulders
Community
" 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
" Slavery has never been abolished from America's way of thinking. "
Nina Simone
America
Slavery
Thinking
" 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 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 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'm not a blues singer, I'm a diva. "
Nina Simone
Singer
Diva
Blues
" Desegregation is a joke. "
Nina Simone
Joke
" 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
" 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 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 if I were over there in America, protest music would be more important. But I'm not going. "
Nina Simone
Music
Over
Think
" You get racism crossing the street; it's in the very fabric of American society. "
Nina Simone
American
Society
Street
" I didn't get interested in music. It was a gift from God. "
Nina Simone
Interested
God
Gift
" 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
" 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
" 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 try to swim every damn day I can, and I've learned to scuba dive and snorkel. "
Nina Simone
Damn
Day
Dive
" 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
" Sometimes I sound like gravel, and sometimes I sound like coffee and cream. "
Nina Simone
Sometimes
Coffee
Sound
" 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
" 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
" 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
" 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'll tell you what freedom is to me: no fear. I mean really, no fear! "
Nina Simone
Freedom
No Fear
Mean
" 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
" It's an artist's duty to reflect the times in which we live. "
Nina Simone
Live
Which
Artist
" 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