Ray Charles Quotes

Sighted people, you gotta deal with them.

I always stay out of the rehearsal room you know when they first come in. Then once they had chance to play a little bit, then I walk in. Because I've seen guys fall apart.

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

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.

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.

With singing, the name of the game is to make yourself believable. When somebody hears you sing a song, and they say, 'Oh, that must have happened to him,' that's when you know you're transmitting. It's like being a good actor. You make people feel things, emotions and what not.

Music is powerful. As people listen to it, they can be affected. They respond.

It's like Duke Ellington said, there are only two kinds of music - good and bad. And you can tell when something is good.

People couldn't understand why my mama would have this blind kid out doing things like cutting wood for the fire. But her thing was: He may be blind, but he ain't stupid.

I was born with music inside me

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.

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

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

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

Learning to read music in Braille & play by ear helped me develop a [very] good memory.

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

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

I've always been the kind of person who, if there's anything that can kill me, I want to know something about it.

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

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.

I had to pawn my clothes just to pay my rent.

When I'm having a rehearsal and there are new guys who come in to try out for the job, I always let my conductor rehearse them. Because I don't want the guy to get bent out of shape, because I walk in.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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.

Many times during auditions, I was told that I couldn't carry a note with a bucket, and that I sure couldn't play the piano.

To me, music is entertainment - what else can it be? In fact, it's the only language I know of that's universal.

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

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

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

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 ass I've gotten over the years for being black and everything else, without actually saying a word about it.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

My mom taught me a lot. A lot about minding your own business and leaving other people's business alone. And let them think what they want.

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.

Goodbye don't mean gone.

I used to sing like Nat King Cole. I mean he was the guy when I was comin' up, and you know, man, people used to say of me, "Damn, he sure do sound like Nat King Cole." But there was a day, and luckily for me it was early, when I woke up and asked myself, "Well, when are the ask me to sing because I sound like me?" So my advice is, never do anything that you don't like.

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

I don't know about other writers, but for myself, to write I must be relatively quiet - it's very difficult to write with the telephone and the doorbell ringing and conversation going on; I'm not that good a writer to write through all that!

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

I'm a firm believer in God himself, but that's as far as I can go. I'm not any denomination. I'm not Catholic or Presbyterian or Baptist or Methodist or Jewish or Muslim. I'm none of those things. And I'm sure that's just fine with God.

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.'

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

I met Quincy Jones in Seattle. We were kids together ... liked each other when we met and have been close ever since. He wasn't writing when we met - in fact, I more or less started him off to write; voicing, harmony, and stuff like that.

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.

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

I'm not a jazz singer, blues singer or country singer. I'm a singer that can sing rhythm & blues, that can sing jazz, that can sing country. There's a big difference. In other words, I'm not a specialist.

Music to me is just like breathing. I have to have it. It's part of me.

Mama was a country woman with a whole lot of common sense. She understood what most of our neighbors didn't - that I shouldn't grow dependent on anyone except myself. 'One of these days, I ain't gonna be here,' she kept hammering inside my head.

Drunken talk isn't meant to be printed in the paper.