Top 41 Quotes & Sayings by Nat King Cole

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American musician Nat King Cole.

Last updated on April 21, 2025.

Nathaniel Adams Coles, known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American singer, jazz pianist, songwriter, and actor. He recorded over 100 songs that became hits on the pop charts. His trio was the model for small jazz ensembles that followed. Cole also acted in films and on television and performed on Broadway. He was the first African-American man to host an American television series. He was the father of singer Natalie Cole (1950–2015).

American - Musician | March 17, 1919 - February 15, 1965

Source: Wikipedia

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

Nat King Cole

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

Nat King Cole

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

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

Nat King 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.

Nat King Cole

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

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

Nat King Cole

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

Nat King Cole

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

Nat King Cole

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

Nat King Cole

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

Nat King Cole

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

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

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

Nat King Cole

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

Nat King Cole

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

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

Nat King Cole

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

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

Nat King Cole

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

Nat King Cole

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

Nat King Cole

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

If I could read it, I could play it.

Nat King Cole

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

Nat King Cole

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

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

Nat King Cole

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

Nat King Cole

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

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

Nat King Cole

Smile and maybe tomorrow you'll see that life is still worth while if you just smile

Nat King Cole

When I first organized the King Cole Trio back in 1937, we were strictly what you would call an instrumental group. To break the monotony, I would sing a few songs here and there between the playing. I sang things I had known over the years. I wasn't trying to give it any special treatment, just singing. I noticed thereafter people started requesting more singing, and it was just one of those things.

Nat King Cole

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

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

Nat King Cole

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

Madison Avenue is afraid of the dark.

Nat King Cole

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

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

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

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