Ray Charles famous quotes

I was born with music inside me. Music was one of my parts. Like my ribs, my kidneys, my liver, my heart. Like my blood. It was a force already within me when I arrived on the scene. It was a necessity for me-like food or water.
-- Ray Charles

#Inspiring #Music #Heart

I never considered myself part of rock 'n' roll. My stuff was more adult. It was more difficult for teenagers to relate to; my stuff was filled with more despair than anything you'd associate with rock 'n' roll. Since I couldn't see people dancing, I didn't write jitterbugs or twists. I wrote rhythms that moved me. My style requires pure heart singing.
-- Ray Charles

#Teenager #Writing #Heart

Music to me is like breathing. I don't get tired of breathing, I don't get tired of music.
-- Ray Charles

#Music #Wisdom #Tired

Music's been around a long time, and there's going to be music long after Ray Charles is dead. I just want to make my mark, leave something musically good behind. If it's a big record, that's the frosting on the cake, but music's the main meal.
-- Ray Charles

#Cake #Long #Meals

Love is a special word, and I use it only when I mean it. You say the word too much and it becomes cheap.
-- Ray Charles

#Love #Life #Mean

Even though I'm not Jewish...Israel is one of the few causes I feel good about supporting.
-- Ray Charles

#Israel #Feel Good #Causes

Affluence separates people. Poverty knits 'em together. You got some sugar and I don't; I borrow some of yours. Next month you might not have any flour; well, I'll give you some of mine.
-- Ray Charles

#Giving #People #Together

What is a soul? It's like electricity - we don't really know what it is, but it's a force that can light a room.
-- Ray Charles

#Light #Soul #Rooms

I don't know what would have happened to me if I hadn't been able to hear.
-- Ray Charles

#Vision #Able

Music is about the only thing left that people don't fight over.
-- Ray Charles

#Fighting #People #Music Is

The important thing is to feel your music, really feel it and believe it.
-- Ray Charles

#Believe #Important #Feels

I cant retire from music any more than I can retire from my liver. Youd have to remove the music from me surgically—like you were taking out my appendix.
-- Ray Charles

#Like You #Retiring

There's nothing written in the Bible, Old or New testament, that says, 'If you believe in Me, you ain't going to have no troubles.'
-- Ray Charles

#Believe #Trouble #New Testament

Just like you can buy grades of silk, you can buy grades of justice.
-- Ray Charles

#Justice #Like You #Grades

My version of 'Georgia' became the state song of Georgia. That was a big thing for me, man. It really touched me. Here is a state that used to lynch people like me suddenly declaring my version of a song as its state song. That is touching.
-- Ray Charles

#Song #Men #People

If somebody don't like something that I do, that's his or her prerogative. Just like it's mine.
-- Ray Charles

Music is the chalk to the blackboard of life. Without it everything is a blank slate
-- Ray Charles

#Blank #Chalk #Music Is

Rhythm and blues used to be called race music. ... This music was going on for years, but nobody paid any attention to it.
-- Ray Charles

#Years #Race #Attention

I'm not into the money thing. You can only sleep in one bed at a time. You can only eat one meal at a time, or be in one car at a time. So I don't have to have millions of dollars to be happy. All I need are clothes on my back, a decent meal, and a little loving when I feel like it. That's the bottom line.
-- Ray Charles

#Sleep #Clothes #Car

Just because you can't see anything , doesn't mean you should shut your eyes.
-- Ray Charles

#Eye #Mean #Should

Before I begin, let me say right here and now that I'm a country boy. And, man, I mean the real backwoods! That's at the start of the start of the thing, and that's at the heart of the thing.
-- Ray Charles

#Country #Real #Mean

I was born with music inside me
-- Ray Charles

#Born

Now Listen You know I work so hard, all day long Everything I try to do, Seem to always turn out wrong That's why I wanna stop by on my way home and say Let's go get stoned
-- Ray Charles

#Weed #Home #Long

Women anchor me. They're there when I need them. They're sensitive to me, and I'm sensitive to them. I'm not saying I've loved that many women.
-- Ray Charles

#Anchors #Needs #Sensitive

I got a cow that went dry and a hen that won't lay, a big stack of bills that gets bigger each day.
-- Ray Charles

#Work #Each Day #Dry

I know it sounds strange - a blind teenager buzzin' round on a motorcycle - but I liked that; that was me. I had always been nervy, and I always had a lot of faith in my ability not to break my neck.
-- Ray Charles

#Faith #Teenager #Motorcycle

Crying's always been a way for me to get things out which are buried deep, deep down. When I sing, I often cry. Crying is feeling, and feeling is being human.
-- Ray Charles

#Feelings #Way #Emotion

You got to set your mind right and the rest will come to you naturally. No restrictions, no hang-ups, no stupid rules, no formalities, no forbidden fruit - just everyone getting and giving as much as he and she can.
-- Ray Charles

#Stupid #Giving #Generosity

I just want to make my mark, leave something musically good behind.
-- Ray Charles

#Want #Immortality #Mark

All my life I've always been so blue, born to lose, and now I'm losing you.
-- Ray Charles

#Blue #Low Self Esteem #Losing

Hit the road Jack, don'tcha come back no more, no more, no more, no more. Hit the road Jack, don'tcha come back no more.
-- Ray Charles

Art Tatum -- he was a genius. And Einstein, not me.
-- Ray Charles

#Art #Genius

When I was going blind, I didn't turn to God. It didn't seem to me then - and it doesn't seem to me now - that those items were His concern. Early on, I figured I better begin to learn how to count on myself, instead of counting on supernatural forces.
-- Ray Charles

#Prayer #Blind #Counting

I'd like to think that when I sing a song, I can let you know all about the heartbreak, struggle, lies and kicks in the ***** I've gotten over the years for being black and everything else, without actually saying a word about it.
-- Ray Charles

#Song #Lying #Struggle

Music is nothing separate from me. It is me... You'd have to remove the music surgically.
-- Ray Charles

#Musical #Music Is

What makes my approach special is that I do different things. I do jazz, blues, country music and so forth. I do them all, like a good utility man.
-- Ray Charles

#Country #Men #Special

I really feel that if you're gonna be good, you gotta practice... Practice whatever the hell you do.
-- Ray Charles

#Practice #Hell #Be Good

Dreams, if they're any good, are always a little bit crazy.
-- Ray Charles

#Dream #Crazy #Littles

The words to country songs are very earthy like the blues. They're not as dressed up and the people are very honest and say, 'Look, I miss you darlin', so I went out and got drunk in this bar.' That's the way you say it. Where in Tin Pan Alley they would say, 'Oh I missed you darling, so I went to this restaurant and I sat down and had a dinner for one.' That's cleaned up now, you see? But country and blues tells it like it is.
-- Ray Charles

#Country #Song #Drunk

Goodbye don't mean gone.
-- Ray Charles

#Goodbye #Mean #Gone

Live each day like it's your last, 'cause one day you gonna be right
-- Ray Charles

#Life #One Day #Lasts

I don't sing a song unless I feel it. The song don't tug at my heart, I pass on it. I have to believe in what I'm doing.
-- Ray Charles

#Song #Believe #Heart

[On his ***** addiction:] I did it to myself. It wasn't society...it wasn't a pusher, it wasn't being blind or being black or being poor. It was all my doing.
-- Ray Charles

#Addiction #Black #Blind

Music is my life, professionally, for nearly 60 years. To be recognized by the academy is still the highest honor.
-- Ray Charles

#Years #Honor #Music Is My Life

Learning to read music in Braille and play by ear helped me develop a damn good memory.
-- Ray Charles

#Music #Memories #Play

There are many spokes on the wheel of life. First, we're here to explore new possibilities.
-- Ray Charles

#Firsts #Wheels #Possibility

I heard someone say that all black people got rhythm. Bullshit.
-- Ray Charles

#Music #Bullshit #People

I don't think any of us really knows why we're here. But I think we're supposed to believe we're here for a purpose.
-- Ray Charles

#Believe #Thinking #Purpose

The role of the designer is basically that of a good host, anticipating the needs of the guest.
-- Ray Charles

#Roles #Guests #Needs

You ask me what I'd like to do that I haven't done and I say 'Nothin'!' I haven't any mountains to climb or oceans to swim. I've been an extremely blessed individual. ... I'm not clamorin' for more trinkets. If I were to die tomorrow, I could say I've had a good life.
-- Ray Charles

#Good Life #Blessed #Ocean

The fact of the matter is, you don't give up what's natural. Anything I've fantasized about, I've done.
-- Ray Charles

#Giving Up #Done

My music had roots which I'd dug up from my own childhood, musical roots buried in the darkest soil.
-- Ray Charles

#Music #Roots #Childhood

I never wanted to be famous. I only wanted to be great.
-- Ray Charles

#Music #Badass #Bad Ass

When I started to sing like myself - as opposed to imitating Nat Cole, which I had done for a while - when I started singing like Ray Charles, it had this spiritual and churchy, this religious or gospel sound. It had this holiness and preachy tone to it. It was very controversial. I got a lot of criticism for it.
-- Ray Charles

#Spiritual #Religious #Singing

Other arms reach out to me, Other eyes smile tenderly, Still in peaceful dreams I see, The road leads back to you.
-- Ray Charles

#Birthday #Romantic #Dream

I had to pawn my clothes just to pay my rent.
-- Ray Charles

#Clothes #Pawns #Pay

What I've got to live up to, is being myself. If I do that, the rest will take care of itself.
-- Ray Charles

#Care #Being Myself #Take Care

Don't go backwards - you've already been there.
-- Ray Charles

#Backwards

There's such a thing as too much happiness and sadness. What I'm after is contentment.
-- Ray Charles

#Sadness #Contentment #Too Much

Sometimes my dreams are so deep that I dream that I'm dreaming.
-- Ray Charles

#Dream #Sometimes

I was born with music inside me. That's the only explanation I know of
-- Ray Charles

#Born #Explanation

I set my own rhythm and it was usually a little faster than other people's.
-- Ray Charles

#People #Littles #Faster

Do it right or don't do it at all. That comes from my mom. If there's something I want to do, I'm one of those people that won't be satisfied until I get it done. If I'm trying to sing something and I can't get it, I'm going to keep at it until I get where I want it.
-- Ray Charles

#Mom #People #Trying

Nowadays they say you need a special chip to put in the TV so kids can't watch this and that. In my day, we didn't need a chip. My mom was the chip. End of story.
-- Ray Charles

#Inspirational #Mom #Kids

Absence makes the heart grow fonder and tears are only rain to make love grow.
-- Ray Charles

#Rain #Sadness #Heart

Drunken talk isn’t meant to be printed in the paper.
-- Ray Charles

#Paper #Printed #Meant To Be