Jazz is a white term to define black people. My music is black classical music. — Nina Simone Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
Jazz is not just music, it's a way of life, it's a way of being, a way of thinking. — Nina Simone Copy Share Image
I'm sorry that I did not become the world's first black classic pianist. I think I would have been happier. — Nina Simone Copy Share Image
When I choose material for an album all these songs I grew up with pour into my head. — Nina Simone Copy Share Image
I was not reluctant to become a singer. Singing has been an activity I've done my whole life, without thought. — Nina Simone Copy Share Image
It doesn't matter to me what is going on today because my music encompasses every kind of mood that exists in human… — Nina Simone Copy Share Image
Music is one of the ways by which you can know everything which is going on in the world. You can feel...… — Nina Simone Copy Share Image
I love the classics but there are many new ideas to be made into reality. I'd rather be concerned with my own… — Nina Simone Copy Share Image
I was reared in the church from the age of three. I've played piano since I was three. I performed at revivals… — Nina Simone Copy Share Image
By the time I was eight I was taking classical piano lessons and I wanted to be a concert pianist. But that… — Nina Simone Copy Share Image
Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood," a song that was written for Simone, she confronted the band's lead singer, Eric Burdon. "So you're… — Nina Simone Copy Share Image
I have to be composed; I have to be poised. I have to remember what my first piano teacher told me: 'You… — Nina Simone Copy Share Image
As far as piano players are concerned, Oscar Peterson is my very favorite. I also like McCoy Tyner. I think that the… — Nina Simone Copy Share Image
The Beatles are lucky, very lucky. But what has happened to them has nothing to do with them, in a sense. They… — Nina Simone Copy Share Image
I only knew classical music, which to me was the only true music. The only way I could survive at the bar… — Nina Simone Copy Share Image
I believe the time will come when the whole definition of pop music will change. It will get to the point where… — Nina Simone Copy Share Image
My singing, if you want to call it that is merely another medium of expression. Just an instrument I play. That's how… — Nina Simone Copy Share Image
My job is not done. I address my songs now to the third world. I am popular all over Asia and Africa… — Nina Simone Copy Share Image
I do love to sing Jacques Brel songs, intensely. I get terribly excited, just by reading a couple of lines in any… — Nina Simone Copy Share Image
Anything human can be felt through music, which means that there is no limit to the creating that can be done with… — Nina Simone Copy Share Image
Music is one of the ways by which you can know everything which is going on in the world. You can feel... through music...… — Nina Simone Copy Share Image
My love is like the wind and wild is the wind. Give me more than one caress, satisfy my hungriness. Let the wind blow… — Nina Simone Copy Share Image
I don't like to go to strange places. I was in Italy for about five hours on my way to Africa. — Nina Simone Copy Share Image
We have ordered things so long in a certain way, we are numb. Nobody dares question it. This is what is wrong, symbolically, with… — Nina Simone Copy Share Image
I wasn't a jazz player, but a classical musician, and I improvised arrangements of popular songs using classical motifs. — Nina Simone Copy Share Image
I think the rich will eventually have to cave in too, because the economic situation around the world is not gonna tolerate the United… — Nina Simone Copy Share Image
Everything that happened to me as a child involved music. It was part of everyday life, as automatic as breathing. — Nina Simone Copy Share Image
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… — Nina Simone Copy Share Image
You have to learn to get up from the table when love is not being served. — Nina Simone Copy Share Image
That's a very high goal to have, study eight hours a day to be a concert pianist. — Nina Simone Copy Share Image
