Nina Simone

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

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.

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.

I do not believe in mixing of the races. You can quote me. I don’t believe in it, and I never have. I’ve never changed. I’ve never changed my hair. I’ve never changed my color, I have always been proud of myself, and my fans are proud of me for remaining the way I’ve always been. I married a white man one time, but he was a creep.

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.

Jazz is not just music, it’s a way of life, it’s a way of being, a way of thinking.

Sometimes you have to play a long time to be able to play like yourself.

You only go around once and this ain’t no rehearsal.

To the person who uses music as a medium for the expression of ideas, feelings, images, or what have you; anything which facilitates this expression is properly his instrument.

I feel like….Music is the – it’s the answer. It’s the reason.

How do I know why Miles walks off the stage? Why don’t you ask him? And besides, maybe we’d all like to be like Miles, and just haven’t got the guts.

The better it gets, the fewer of us know it.

I start in the middle of a sentence and move both directions at once.

One way or the other, if you want to find reasons why you shouldn’t keep on, you’ll find ’em. The obstacles are all there; there are a million of ’em.

I kind of hate the fact that people are always trying to put you into a category. I hate walls, and I hate boundaries. I don’t like that. I listen to everything.

If you understood everything I say, you’d be me!

A Jazz musician is a juggler who uses harmonies instead of oranges.

You can separate the men from the boys and ballads.

Just because a man lacks the use of his eyes doesn’t mean he lacks vision.

Once you start collecting records you learn more and more about Jazz and Blues.

Monk encouraged me to emancipate the drums from their subservient role as timekeepers.