Nina Simone Quotes about Music

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

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

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 was always a politician from the day the civil rights people chose me as their protest singer.

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

It's time to take a look at my failures and stop calling them successes. Now I can start working at something that can use me best.

Everything that happened to me as a child involved music. It was part of everyday life, as automatic as breathing.

Jazz is not just music, it's a way of life, it's a way of being, a way of thinking. . . . the new inventive phrases we make up to describe things - all that to me is jazz just as much as the music we play.

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 the honky," she said, "who stole my song and got a hit out of it?

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.

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

I don't like drug addicts and she sounds like a cat.

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

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

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.