Talent is a burden not a joy. I am not of this planet. I do not come from you. I am not like you. Nina Simone More Quotes by Nina Simone More Quotes From Nina Simone When a child is gifted, people try to help that child. Nina Simone trying children people Music is the center of my life. Nina Simone music-is I have a cultured manner of speaking. Nina Simone I do love to sing Jacques Brel songs, intensely. I get terribly excited, just by reading a couple of lines in any one of his songs. Nina Simone couple reading song That's a very high goal to have, study eight hours a day to be a concert pianist. Nina Simone eight study goal I love the classics but there are many new ideas to be made into reality. I'd rather be concerned with my own thing. There are many masters of classical piano so I'll leave it to them. Nina Simone piano reality ideas Theory and harmony broadened my mind in music. I know what music is made of. Nina Simone harmony made mind My name sounds French but that's just a stage name. Nina Simone stage names sound The pressure of show business is on all the time and show business is a fickle business. Whatever is popular now - that's all that counts. I have to constantly re-identify myself to myself, reactivate my own standards, my own convictions about what I'm doing and why. Nina Simone fickle conviction pressure I believe the time will come when the whole definition of pop music will change. It will get to the point where a song will not be a good song until it has a high level of creativity in writing and performance. In other words, in order to be popular, songs will have to meet these high standards. Nina Simone writing song believe I think if I were over there in America, protest music would be more important. But I'm not going. Nina Simone important america thinking I play piano, by ear. Yes, I write songs... and good ones. Nina Simone play writing song There are all kinds of things that can be done. You can change rhythms, you can change chords, you can change whole concepts. But it will only work, on a record or in a performance, if you can make the people buy it. Nina Simone records done people I'm a nut for Bach as a composer. Nina Simone composer nuts I can read and arrange, but I can't write. Nina Simone i-can-read i-can writing I had heard blues and jazz all my life but I was never aware that it was associated with nightclubs and drinking. Nina Simone jazz heard drinking When I choose material for an album all these songs I grew up with pour into my head. Nina Simone albums grew-up song If I get an idea I put it on tape and somebody else writes it out. Nina Simone tape writing ideas From the beginning, it has been a no-no for a black man to touch a white woman. Nina Simone racism white men I try to swim every damn day I can, and I've learned to scuba dive and snorkel. Nina Simone umpires swim trying
