Nina Simone Quotes

Jazz is not just music, it’s a way of life, it’s a way of being, a way of thinking.

What kept me sane was knowing that things would change, and it was a question of keeping myself together until they did.

To be young, gifted and black!

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

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

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.

Talent is a burden not a joy. I am not of this planet. I do not come from you. I am not like you.

You’ve got to learn to leave the table When love’s no longer being served”.

Birds flying high you know how I feel
Sun in the sky you know how I feel
Breeze driftin’ on by you know how I feel
And this old world is a new world
And a bold world
For me
And I’m feeling good
I’m feeling good

This is the world you have made yourself, now you have to live in it.

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

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

How do you explain what it feels like to get on the stage and make poetry that you know sinks into the hearts and souls of people who are unable to express it

I’m a real rebel with a cause.

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

I’m not a blues singer, I’m a diva.

My love is like the wind and wild is the wind. Give me more than one caress, satisfy my hungriness. Let the wind blow through your heart for wild is the wind.