Best 64 quotes of Ray Charles on MyQuotes

Ray Charles

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    Ray Charles

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

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    Ray Charles

    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.

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    Ray Charles

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

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    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.

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    Ray Charles

    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.

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    Ray Charles

    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.

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    Ray Charles

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

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    Ray Charles

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

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    Ray Charles

    Goodbye don't mean gone.

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    Ray Charles

    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.

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    Ray Charles

    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.

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    Ray Charles

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

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    Ray Charles

    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.

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    Ray Charles

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

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    Ray Charles

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

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    Ray Charles

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

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    Ray Charles

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

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    Ray Charles

    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.

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    Ray Charles

    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.

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    Ray Charles

    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.

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    Ray Charles

    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.

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    Ray Charles

    I never wanted to be famous. I only wanted to be great.

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    Ray Charles

    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.

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    Ray Charles

    I never said I was a genius. I never said I was a cornerstone. I've never said I'm a legend in my own time. You never heard me say nothing like that.

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    Ray Charles

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

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    Ray Charles

    I set my own rhythm, and I do believe it was usually a little faster than most other people's.

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    Ray Charles

    I think that most great artists who are extremely known, as I am, would intimidate a lot of people. I don't want to do that to people, but I know I do.

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    Ray Charles

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

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    Ray Charles

    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.

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    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.

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    Ray Charles

    I was born with music inside me

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    Ray Charles

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

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    Ray Charles

    Just like you can buy grades of silk, you can buy grades of justice.

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    Ray Charles

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

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    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.

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    Ray Charles

    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.

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    Ray Charles

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

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    Ray Charles

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

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    Ray Charles

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

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    Ray Charles

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

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    Ray Charles

    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.

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    Ray Charles

    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.

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    Ray Charles

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

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    Ray Charles

    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.

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    Ray Charles

    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.

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    Ray Charles

    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

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    Ray Charles

    [On his heroin 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.

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    Ray Charles

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

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    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.

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    Ray Charles

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