I don't know what would have happened to me if I hadn't been able to hear.
Ray Charles
- More quotations by Musician
Ray Charles quotes
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.
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 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.
I don't know what would have happened to me if I hadn't been able to hear.
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.
I never wanted to be famous. I only wanted to be great.
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.
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.
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.
Learning to read music in Braille and play by ear helped me develop a damn good memory.
Love is a special word, and I use it only when I mean it. You say the word too much and it becomes cheap.
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.
My music had roots which I'd dug up from my own childhood, musical roots buried in the darkest soil.
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.
The fact of the matter is, you don't give up what's natural. Anything I've fantasized about, I've done.
There are many spokes on the wheel of life. First, we're here to explore new possibilities.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Similiar authors
Simon Rattle
Stephanie Mills
Nadia Boulanger
Gloria Estefan
John Evelyn
Jennifer Lopez
Yehudi Menuhin
Van Morrison
Eugene Ormandy
Sting