139 Quotes by 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.

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

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 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.

Jazz is a white term to define black people. My music is black classical music.

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.

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

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

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