Nina Simone

I only knew classical music, which to me was the only true music. The only way I could survive at the bar was to mix the classical music with popular songs, and that meant I had to sing. What happened was that I discovered I had a voice plus the talent to mix classical music together with more popular songs, which at the time I detested.
Nina Simone

I would like you to know, I am a doctor of music.
Nina Simone

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

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

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

Slavery has never been abolished from America's way of thinking.
Nina Simone

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

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

I believe that America is going to die, die like flies, just like the song says.
Nina Simone

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

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

My job is not done. I address my songs now to the third world. I am popular all over Asia and Africa and the Middle East, not to speak of South Africa, where I'm trying to go to see Nelson Mandela.
Nina Simone, Nina Simone Interview

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

I do not believe in mixing of the races. You can quote me. I don't believe in it, and I never have. I've never changed. I've never changed my hair. I've never changed my color, I have always been proud of myself, and my fans are proud of me for remaining the way I've always been. I married a white man one time, but he was a creep.
Nina Simone, Nina Simone Interview

Desegregation is a joke.
Nina Simone, Nina Simone Interview

With all the bombings going on, and the terrorism, I don't like it at all. It frightens me. I like being in the South of France. It is very beautiful, and we work very hard to keep it that way. We have a huge garden bearing fruit for the winter: peaches, grapes, strawberries, and raspberries.
Nina Simone, Nina Simone Interview

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, Nina Simone Interview

I am particular about the seating of the audience-also about how much money they pay-but most of all where they are seated. If I am going to sing something intimate, who am I going to sing it to?
Nina Simone, Nina Simone Interview

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, Nina Simone Interview

I demand perfection in what I do, and I practice very hard before I give a concert-sometimes three to six hours a day.
Nina Simone, Nina Simone Interview