I applied for a scholarship to Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. I knew I was good enough, but they turned me down. And it took me about six months to realize it was because I was black. I never really got over that jolt of racism at the time.

— Nina Simone

Nina Simone Quotes

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

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

— Nina Simone

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.

— Nina Simone

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

— 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

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

— Nina Simone

I look forward to doing my own show, not someone else’s. That’s always been my dream.

— Nina Simone

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

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

— Nina Simone

I don’t like to go to strange places.

— 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

Desegregation is a joke.

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

— Nina Simone

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

— Nina Simone

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

— Nina Simone

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.

— Nina Simone

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

I try to swim every damn day I can, and I’ve learned to scuba dive and snorkel.

— Nina Simone

It was always Marx, Lenin, and revolution – real girl’s talk.

— Nina Simone
More Nina Simone Quote >>
Privacy Policy   6.10ms  0.71MB