Nina Simone

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.

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.

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

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

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

I simply want to reach a level where I will never cease to make progress…so that, even on the bad evenings, I may never be bad enough to despair.

We all do ‘do, re, mi’ but you got to find the other notes yourself.

Judy Garland was the singer I most wanted to sound like then, not to copy, but to get some of her soul and purity. A wonderful young voice.

Jazz music just resonates with the frequency of me.

I can play all I know in eight bars.

The challenge to the improvisor is to get permanence into his spontaneity. The challenge to the composer is to get spontaneity into his permanence.

Well if I could play like Wynton, I wouldn’t play like Wynton.

The drummer; he inspired me to play like no one else I have ever met.

As soon as it was understood that we could handle things in our own way, it was the thrill of my life to walk out on that stage with people just hemming the band in.

When Bird came on the scene, it was shocking as in the Bible: everything was dark and then there was light.

I guess what people forget sometimes is that when I write songs, I write them sometimes in about 20 minutes.

[On the word Jazz] There’s nothing wrong with it. It’s only a word. What’s in a name? Nothing! Cats say, Call me Muhammed so-and-so. But what’s the difference? A name doesn’t make the music. It’s just called that to differentiate it from other types of music. Jazz is known all over the world as an American musical art form and that’s it. No America, no jazz. I’ve seen people try to connect it to other countries, for instance to Africa, but it doesn’t have a damn thing to do with Africa.

Don’t bullshit, just play.

Don’t play the saxophone. Let it play you.

I don’t meditate before I play or compose, but I see playing and composing as meditative acts.