Ray Charles quotes

My music had roots which I'd dug up from my own childhood, musical roots buried in the darkest soil. (Ray Charles)
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
The fact of the matter is, you don't give up what's natural. Anything I've fantasized about, I've done.
Ray Charles
You better live every day like your last because one day you're going to be right.
Ray Charles
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
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
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
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
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
Music has 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
Hey mama, don't you treat me wrong, Come and love your daddy all night long. All right now, hey hey, all right. See the girl with the diamond ring; She knows how to shake that thing. All right now now now, hey hey, hey hey. Tell your mama, tell your pa, I'm gonna send you back to Arkansas. Oh yes, ma'm, you don't do right, don't do right. (Ray Charles)
Soul is when you take a song and make it a part of you - a part that's so true, so real, people think it must have happened to you. ... It's like electricity - we don't really know what it is, do we? But it's a force that can light a room. Soul is like electricity, like a spirit, a drive, a power.
Ray Charles
I was born with music inside me.
Ray Charles
You gotta know how to get to people's heart.
Ray Charles
Music is nothing separate from me. It is me. I can't retire from music any more than I can retire from my liver. You'd have to remove the music from me surgically - like you were taking out my appendix.
Ray Charles
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
But now if I can wrap myself up in that song, and when that song gets to be a part of me, and affects me emotionally, then the emotions that I go through, chances are I'll be able to communicate to you. Make the people out there become a part of the life of this song that you're singing about. That's soul when you can do that.
Ray Charles
I know that men ain't supposed to cry, but I think that's wrong. 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
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
I never wanted to be famous. I only wanted to be great.
Ray Charles
Music is powerful. As people listen to it, they can be affected. They respond. (Ray Charles)
I don't know what would have happened to me if I hadn't been able to hear.
Ray Charles
Learning to read music in Braille and play by ear helped me develop a damn good memory.
Ray Charles
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
Music is my life, professionally, for nearly 60 years. To be recognized by the academy is still the highest honor.
Ray Charles