Nina Simone Quotes - Page 4

I have a cultured manner of speaking.

Greed has driven the world crazy. And I think I'm lucky that I have a place over here that I can call home.

I love the classics but there are many new ideas to be made into reality. I'd rather be concerned with my own thing. There are many masters of classical piano so I'll leave it to them.

Music is a gift and a burden I've had since I can remember who I was.

My name sounds French but that's just a stage name.

Since I was three I've been playing the piano. I've been onstage.

When a child is gifted, people try to help that child.

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.

I was not reluctant to become a singer. Singing has been an activity I've done my whole life, without thought.

I don't like to go to strange places. I was in Italy for about five hours on my way to Africa.

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.

Since I was three I've been playing the piano. I've been onstage. My mother is an Evangelist and I used to play the piano at her revival meetings.

I believe the time will come when the whole definition of pop music will change. It will get to the point where a song will not be a good song until it has a high level of creativity in writing and performance. In other words, in order to be popular, songs will have to meet these high standards.

Music is the center of my life.

The pressure of show business is on all the time and show business is a fickle business. Whatever is popular now - that's all that counts. I have to constantly re-identify myself to myself, reactivate my own standards, my own convictions about what I'm doing and why.

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

As I got older though I wanted a life of my own. The classical training was very demanding and thorough. It was a very sheltered existence. Even though I heard blues and gospel on the radio sometimes, it was always back to the piano and study and give recitals.

I'm a nut for Bach as a composer.

If I get an idea I put it on tape and somebody else writes it out.

I had heard blues and jazz all my life but I was never aware that it was associated with nightclubs and drinking.

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

I do love to sing Jacques Brel songs, intensely. I get terribly excited, just by reading a couple of lines in any one of his songs.

That's a very high goal to have, study eight hours a day to be a concert pianist.

I play piano, by ear. Yes, I write songs... and good ones.

I was reared in the church from the age of three. I've played piano since I was three. I performed at revivals and for my people around North Carolina for several years. People around town collected money to send me to school.