All the time, there was the weight of my community’s expectations on my shoulders. Nina Simone Read Quote
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 Read Quote
This may be a dream, but I’ll say it anyway: I was supposed to be married last year, and I bought a gown. When I meet Nelson Mandela, I shall put on this gown and have the train of it removed and put aside, and kiss the ground that he walks on and then kiss his feet. Nina Simone Read Quote
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 Read Quote
As a political weapon, it has helped me for 30 years defend the rights of American blacks and third-world people all over the world, to defend them with protest songs. To move the audience to make them conscious of what has been done to my people around the world. Nina Simone Read Quote
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 Read Quote
My daughter is in more competition with me. I never wanted to be bigger than my mother or to challenge her. Nina Simone Read Quote
