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Quote by Nina Simone

“It is difficult to retain your standards with the pressure of trying to make money, which always has its rules...It's hard to walk the tightrope of doing what you think is your best and making money at it.”

Quote by Nina Simone

Author

Nina Simone, born Eunice Waymon, was an American jazz, blues, and soul singer, pianist, and civil rights activist. Known for her distinctive voice and musical style, as well as her commitment to social issues, Simone's musical career spanned over half a century. Her works include 'Feeling Good', 'My Baby Just Cried Her Last Tear', and 'I Want a Little Sugar in My Bowl'. more

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“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.”

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“The Beatles are lucky, very lucky. But what has happened to them has nothing to do with them, in a sense. They came along at the right time. Attention was focused on them. They've had the chance to grow in almost any direction they wanted. Very lucky. They are not exceptionally talented.”

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“It doesn't matter to me what is going on today because my music encompasses every kind of mood that exists in human beings. That's my stick.”

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“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.”

People Ifs Kind Done Whole Records Concepts Performances All Kinds Rhythm Chords

Author:Nina Simone

“As far as piano players are concerned, Oscar Peterson is my very favorite. I also like McCoy Tyner. I think that the big jazz stars, both now and in the past...how shall I say it? These guys are as great as Bach, Beethoven; all of them. People don't know it yet. If jazz survives and is put on a pedestal as an art form, the same as classical music has been through the years, a hundred years from now the kids will know who they were, with that kind of respect.”

People Ifs Thinking Knows Years Kind Has Beens Art Bigs Kids Past Form Guy Stars Player Hundred Concerned Jazz Piano Oscars Classical Music Pedestal Through The Years

Author:Nina Simone

“Music is an art and art has its own rules. And one of them is that you must pay more attention to it than anything else in the world, if you are going to be true to yourself. And if you don't do it - and you are an artist - it punishes you.”

Ifs World Art Artist Pay Attention Music Is Being True Be True To Yourself True To Yourself

Author:Nina Simone

“We have ordered things so long in a certain way, we are numb. Nobody dares question it. This is what is wrong, symbolically, with America.”

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Author:Nina Simone

“Music is one of the ways by which you can know everything which is going on in the world. You can feel... through music... Whew... you can feel the vibrations of everybody in the world at any given moment.”

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“Through music you can become sad, joyful, loving, you can learn. You can learn mathematics, touch, pacing... Oh my God! Ooh... Wow... You can see colors through music. Anything!”

Color Mathematics Wow Joyful Loving You Pacing

Author:Nina Simone

“Anything human can be felt through music, which means that there is no limit to the creating that can be done with music. You can take the same phrase from any song and cut it up so many different ways - it's infinite. It's like God... you know?”

Knows Way Humans Mean Different Done Song Felt Cutting Limits Creating Infinite Different Ways Phrases

Author:Nina Simone