I’m sorry that I did not become the world’s first black classic pianist. I think I would have been happier. — Nina Simone

To be young, gifted and black! — Nina Simone

It’s a good time for black people to be alive. — Nina Simone

To me, we are the most beautiful creatures in the whole world. Black people. And I mean that in every sense. — 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

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

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

Music is the center of my life. — Nina Simone

Once I understood Bach’s music, I wanted to be a concert pianist. Bach made me dedicate my life to music, and it was that teacher who introduced me to his world. — Nina Simone

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

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. — Nina Simone

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

At this crucial time in our lives, when everything is so desperate, when every day is a matter of survival, I don’t think you can help but be involved. — Nina Simone

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

Music is as close to God as I know. — Nina Simone

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

Music has been a burden and a joy for as long as I can remember. — Nina Simone

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

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

Music is a gift and a burden I’ve had since I can remember who I was. — Nina Simone

Theory and harmony broadened my mind in music. I know what music is made of. — 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

I don’t like rap music at all. I don’t think it’s music. It’s just a beat and rapping. — Nina Simone

It’s logical that people from bad times will reflect their feelings in their communication. Music is part of the communication. If you lived it, you can do it. — Nina Simone

Every day has its emotional difficulties. I miss my mother whether I’m singing her music or not. — Nina Simone

It doesn’t matter to me what is going on today because my music encompasses every kind of mood that exists in human beings. That’s my stick. — Nina Simone

Through music you can become sad, joyful, loving, you can learn. You can learn mathematics, touch, pacing… Oh my God! Ooh… Wow… You can see colors through music. Anything! — Nina Simone

I’m a nut for Bach as a composer. — Nina Simone

You don’t know what it’s like to love somebody the way I love you. — Nina Simone

What is love but a prelude to sorrow…with heartache ahead for your goal. — Nina Simone

I love to travel to hear different kinds of music. — Nina Simone

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. — Nina Simone

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. — Nina Simone

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. — Nina Simone

She was alien to me, she started me on bach. and this bach, i liked him. — Nina Simone

The allusion was that I was actually naked. I loved that. It always, kind of shocked people enough that they became mine immediately. — Nina Simone

Many times I feel different like a different person. — Nina Simone

Life is short. People are not easy to know. They’re not easy to know, so if you don’t tell them how you feel, you’re not going to get anywhere, I feel. — Nina Simone

I feel more alive now than I ever have in my life. I have a chance to live, as I’ve dreamed. — Nina Simone

You feel the shame, humiliation, and anger at being just another victim of prejudice, and at the same time, there’s the nagging worry that maybe… you’re just no good. — Nina Simone

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 — Nina Simone

I feel what they feel. And people who listen to me know that, and it makes them feel like they’re not alone. — Nina Simone

Music is one of the ways by which you can know everything which is going on in the world. You can feel… through music… Whew… you can feel the vibrations of everybody in the world at any given moment. — 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

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 — Nina Simone

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

One of Nina Simone’s most popular songs, “Mississippi Goddam — was made in direct response to the murder of civil rights activist Medgar Evers and the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church.

I play piano, by ear. Yes, I write songs… and good ones. — Nina Simone

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

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? — Nina Simone

When I choose material for an album all these songs I grew up with pour into my head. — Nina Simone