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

Simone: "I had spent many years pursuing excellence, because that is what classical music is all about... Now it was dedicated to freedom, and that was far more important."

Simone: "I didn't get interested in music. It was a gift from God."

Simone: "Did you know that the human voice is the only pure instrument? That it has notes no other instrument has? It's like being between the keys of a piano. The notes are there, you can sing them, but they can't be found on any instrument. That's like me. I live in between this. I live in both worlds, the black and white world."

Simone: "I'm a real rebel with a cause."

Simone: "I think the rich will eventually have to cave in too, because the economic situation around the world is not gonna tolerate the United States being on top forever."

Simone: "I'll tell you what freedom is to me: no fear. I mean really, no fear!"

Simone: "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."

Simone: "You get racism crossing the street; it's in the very fabric of American society."

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."

Simone: "I want to shake people up so bad, that when they leave a nightclub where I've performed, I just want them to be to pieces."

Simone: "Once I understood Bach's music, I wanted to be a concert pianist. Bach made me dedicate my life to music, and it was that teacher who introduced me to his world."

Simone: "Jazz is a white term to define black people. My music is black classical music."

Simone: "The protest years were over, not just for me but for a whole generation, and in music, just like in politics, many of the greatest talents were dead or in exile, and their place was filled by third-rate imitators."

Simone: "Desegregation is a joke."

Simone: "At this crucial time in our lives, when everything is so desperate, when every day is a matter of survival, I don't think you can help but be involved."

Simone: "Greed has driven the world crazy. And I think I'm lucky that I have a place over here that I can call home."