“I'm not a blues singer, I'm a diva.” — Nina Simone

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.

All the time, there was the weight of my community's expectations on my shoulders.

Desegregation is a joke.

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.