Quotes by Nat Cole

• I'm not playing for other musicians. We're trying to reach the guy who works all day and wants to spend a buck at night. We'll keep him happy.
• Get me well so I can get on television and tell people to stop smoking.
• I'm an interpreter of stories. When I perform it's like sitting down at my piano and telling fairy stories.
• For years the Trio did nothing but play for musicians and other hip people. We practically starved to death.
• I am an American citizen and feel I am entitled to the same rights as any other citizen.
• I am famous because I am an African American jazz artist.
• I can't bear to see myself even in movies. The feeling is complex. I can't stand the sight of myself.
• I make no claim to being a business genius. You can make so much money in this business that it loses its value.
• I may be helping to bring harmony between people through my music.
• I often wonder whether Negroes like myself who are pretty well known help out at all in breaking down barriers.
• I'm a musician at heart, I know I'm not really a singer. I couldn't compete with real singers. But I sing because the public buys it.
• I'm in the music business for one purpose - to make money.
• If I could read it, I could play it.
• The Supreme Court is having a hard time integrating schools. What chance do I have to integrate audiences?
• Critics don't buy records. They get 'em free.
• It's not the people in the South who create racial problems - it's the people who are governing.
• You've got to change with the public's taste.
• The sheriff is at the cash register, and if I don't get a hit soon, I don't know what I'll do.
• The people who know nothing about music are the ones always talking about it.
• The only sport I'm not interested in is horse racing. That's because I don't know the horses personally.
• The only prejudice I've found anywhere in TV is in some advertising agencies, and there isn't so much prejudice as just fear.
• Primarily I'm a meat man, although once in a while I toy with a few vegetables.
• People don't slip. Time catches up with them.
• Only time, education and plenty of good schooling will make anti-segregation work.
• Music is emotional, and you may catch a musician in a very unemotional mood or you may not be in the same frame of mind as the musician. So a critic will often say a musician is slipping.
• There's just one thing I can't figure out. My income tax!