Quotes from Nina Simone

I am just one of the people who is sick of the social order, sick of the establishment, sick to my soul of it all. To me, America's society is nothing but a cancer, and it must be exposed before it can be cured. I am not the doctor to cure it. All I can do is expose the sickness.

You have to learn to get up from the table when love is no longer being served.

You don't have to live next to me / Just give me my equality.

Having as little to do with human beings as possible - in some weird way, I'm at peace.

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

I have to constantly re-identify myself to myself, reactivate my own standards, my own convictions about what I'm doing and why.

It is an artist's duty to reflect the times.

Greed has driven the world crazy. And I think I'm lucky that I have a place over here that I can call home.

Cause your mama's name was lonely, and your daddy's name was pain. And they called you little sorrow, cus you'll never love again. You ain't got no one to hold you. You ain't got no one to care. if you'd only understand it. nobody wants you anywhere.

Sometimes I sound like gravel and sometimes I sound like coffee and cream.

I came to expect despair every time I set foot in my own country, and I was never disappointed.

You use up everything you've got trying to give everybody what they want.

They don't know that I'm dead, and my ghost is holding on.

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

Don'tcha know that no one alive can always be an angel? When everything goes wrong, you see some bad But oh, I'm just a soul whose intentions are good Oh Lord, please don't let me be misunderstood

It is a fact that I don't get enough love, I never did get enough love

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.

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

You get racism crossing the street; it's in the very fabric of American society.

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

By the time I was eight I was taking classical piano lessons and I wanted to be a concert pianist. But that didn't work out. I graduated from high school and my formal education ended.

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.

You have to learn to get up from the table when love is no longer being served.

You don't have to live next to me / Just give me my equality.