Nat King Cole Quotes

#1. For years the Trio did nothing but play for musicians and other hip people. We practically starved to death.

Nat King Cole

#2. You've got to change with the public's taste.

Nat King Cole

#3. Critics don't buy records. They get 'em free.

Nat King Cole

#4. I am an American citizen and feel I am entitled to the same rights as any other citizen.

Nat King Cole

#5. I felt something impossible for me to explain in words. Then, when they took her away, it hit me. I got scared all over again and began to feel giddy. Then it came to me ... I was a father.

Nat King Cole

#6. There's just one thing I can't figure out. My income tax!

Nat King Cole

#7. 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.

Nat King Cole

#8. Get me well so I can get on television and tell people to stop smoking.

Nat King Cole

#9. I make no claim to being a business genius. You can make so much money in this business that it loses its value.

Nat King Cole

#10. I am famous because I am an African American jazz artist.

Nat King Cole

#11. I'm in the music business for one purpose - to make money.

Nat King Cole

#12. It's not the people in the South who create racial problems - it's the people who are governing.

Nat King Cole

#13. If I could read it, I could play it.

Nat King Cole

#14. I was a guinea pig for some hoodlums who thought they could hurt me and frighten me and keep other Negro entertainers from the South.

Nat King Cole

#15. 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.

Nat King Cole

#16. I got the message. All of us get the message, sooner or later. If you get it before it's too late or before you're too old, you'll pull through all right.

Nat King Cole

#17. The whites come to applaud a Negro performer just like the colored do. When you've got the respect of white and colored, you can ease a lot of things.

Nat King Cole

#18. The only prejudice I've found anywhere in TV is in some advertising agencies, and there isn't so much prejudice as just fear.

Nat King Cole

#19. Although it's been said many times, many ways ... Merry Christmas to you!

Nat King Cole

#20. The sheriff is at the cash register, and if I don't get a hit soon, I don't know what I'll do.

Nat King Cole

#21. People don't slip. Time catches up with them.

Nat King Cole

#22. The only sport I'm not interested in is horse racing. That's because I don't know the horses personally.

Nat King Cole

#23. I may be helping to bring harmony between people through my music.

Nat King Cole

#24. Primarily I'm a meat man, although once in a while I toy with a few vegetables.

Nat King Cole

#25. Only time, education and plenty of good schooling will make anti-segregation work.

Nat King Cole

#26. The Supreme Court is having a hard time integrating schools. What chance do I have to integrate audiences?

Nat King Cole

#27. I'm proud of our court. It knocks back a lot of the propaganda the Communists put out about the way America treats her Negroes.

Nat King Cole

#28. The people who know nothing about music are the ones always talking about it.

Nat King Cole

#29. I can't bear to see myself even in movies. The feeling is complex. I can't stand the sight of myself.

Nat King Cole

#30. I'm a businessman. I work for business people. The kind of thing they say is: Now we've sold a lot of records, let's sell some more.

Nat King Cole

#31. Madison Avenue is afraid of the dark.

Nat King Cole

#32. If you smile through your fear and sorrow, smile and maybe tomorrow you'll see the sun come shining through for you.

Nat King Cole

#33. I ... started out to become a jazz pianist; in the meantime I started singing and I sang the way I felt and that's just the way it came out.

Nat King Cole

#34. 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.

Nat King Cole

#35. Unforgettable in every way, and forever more, that's how you'll stay.

Nat King Cole

#36. I'm an interpreter of stories. When I perform it's like sitting down at my piano and telling fairy stories.

Nat King Cole

#37. I often wonder whether Negroes like myself who are pretty well known help out at all in breaking down barriers.

Nat King Cole