Nina Simone Quotes

To the extent that independent means you're willing to attempt to put your own ideas, personality, and commitment to the material on screen, then of course I hope I'm independent until the day I die.

I was always a rebel in the sense that I always wanted to go my own road and do something that nobody else has done.

Anyone who creates something new or does something different artistically is going to be singled out.

The man with a new idea is a crank until his idea succeeds.

The music I make, I'm different.

Honestly, I still don't know a lot of artists, and I want to keep it that way for a while. I think that's why I might be quite original.

I don't want to follow in the footsteps of anybody that went before, because they didn't do what I want to do.

I feel like I wanted to run differently than everybody else did. And I want to do things that everybody else hasn't done.

I just really like to find my own ideas.

As an entrepreneur, don't follow the crowd; let them follow you.

Do whatever you do intensely. The artist is the man who leaves the crowd and goes pioneering. With him there is an idea which is his life.

People are always talking about originality; but what do they mean? As soon as we are born, the world begins to work upon us; and this goes on to the end. And after all, what can we call our own, except energy, strength, and will? If I could give an account of all that I owe to great predecessors and contemporaries, there would be but a small balance in my favor.

It is a poor wit who lives by borrowing the words, decisions, mien, inventions and actions of others.

I came to realize that exaggerated concern about what others are doing can be foolish. It can paralyze effort, and stifle a good idea. One finds that in the history of science, almost every problem has been worked out by someone else. This should not discourage anyone from pursuing his own path.

I'm going forward, so my clothing line is kind of the physicalization of that. The idea of diversity, of uniqueness, of individuality - that's what this is all about.

I believe that the imagination is the passport we create to take us into the real world. I believe the imagination is another phrase for what is most uniquely us.

Don't follow the crowd, let the crowd follow you.

The source of innovation is freedom. All we have - new knowledge, invention - comes from freedom. Discoveries and new knowledge come from freedom. When somebody is responsible only to himself, [has] only himself to satisfy, then you'll have invention, new thought, now product, new design, new ideas.

It is important to foster individuality, for only the individual can produce the new ideas.

Everyone has a desire, if not a need, to use their individual signatures. Whenever people meet to talk about a project, even stuffy old businessmen, they say they want to create something new.

Words are the instruments you play to the song of your ideas, you're just playing covers.

New ideas are one of the most overrated concepts of our time. Most of the important ideas that we live with aren't new at all.

My thing is: stay creative. And just because somebody starts to pay you, that don't mean all your creativity goes to that, and you don't save none for yourself to be able to do other, bigger and better things and still follow your dreams even if you start off inside of a box.

If you wanted to chart new territories and head off over the horizon, you had to make sure you weren't overly influenced by what others were doing ... so it didn't matter what other bands were doing ... we did what we were doing.

What makes our poetry so contemptible nowadays is its paucity of ideas. If you want to be read, invent. Who the Devil wouldn't like to read something new?