Nina Simone quotes

Nina Simone was an American singer, songwriter, and pianist, renowned for her powerful voice and unique fusion of jazz, blues, and classical music. A passionate advocate for Civil Rights, her songs became anthems of the movement and carried messages of social justice. She inspired generations with her artistry, activism, and uncompromising spirit. Here are 27 of her quotes:

There's no excuse for the young people not knowing who the heroes and heroines are or were.

Nina Simone

I'm a real rebel with a cause.

Nina Simone

Desegregation is a joke.

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

You can't help it. An artist's duty, as far as I'm concerned, is to reflect the times.

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

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

This is the world you have made yourself, now you have to live in it.

Nina Simone

You've got to learn to leave the table When love's no longer being served".

Nina Simone

Slavery has never been abolished from America's way of thinking.

Nina Simone

It's an artist's duty to reflect the times in which we live.

Nina Simone

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

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

It was always Marx, Lenin, and revolution - real girl's talk.

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 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

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

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.

Nina Simone

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

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

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

Nina Simone

I tell you what freedom is to me: no fear.

Nina Simone