Nina Simone People Quotations

I think the rich are too rich and the poor are too poor. I don't think the black people are going to rise at all; I think most of them are going to die.

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.

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.

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

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

It's a good time for black people to be alive.

I was always a politician from the day the civil rights people chose me as their protest singer.

The allusion was that I was actually naked. I loved that. It always, kind of shocked people enough that they became mine immediately.