Nina Simone

I don't like to be called a diva. I'm a working musician.

I'm not a jazz singer. I'm a black classical singer.

I've always been a loner.

I'm not trying to be anybody else. I'm just trying to be me.

I've always been a fighter.

I don't have any heroes. I just have people I admire.

I just want to play my music, and I want to be left alone.

If I can't play my music, I don't want to live.

I don't believe in happy endings. I believe in happy beginnings.

I just play the truth.

I'm not a symbol. I'm a woman.

I don't care what people think about me. I just do my own thing.

How can you be an artist and not reflect the times? That to me is the definition of an artist.

I can't sing a song that I don't feel. I can't sing a song that I don't believe in.

I demand to be taken seriously. I demand to be heard.

I'm a political animal. I'm a Black political animal.

To be young, gifted and black, oh what a lovely precious thing to be.

I play the piano, but I'm an artist. I'm not a musician.

Slavery has never been abolished from America's way of thinking.

I wish I could say that I was a happy woman.