Ray Charles 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

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

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. That's how my band made it. We swam through a lot of shit together, we swallowed a lot of pride, but we managed to do what we needed to do.

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

In my day, living where I did, I was taught to say 'yes, sir' and 'yes ma'am.' I was taught respect.
On the one hand, adults in Greensville also showed respect for kids. You rarely heard a grown-up curse in front of a child, for example. Kids were taught to mind their manners all right, but as far as I could tell, the older folk set a decent example.

You gotta know how to get to people's heart

Yeah yeah, what'd I say, all right Well, tell me what'd I say, yeah Tell me what'd I say right now Tell me what'd I say

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.

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.

The most vicious weapon is the tongue,' Mama said, 'and it can hurt you worse than anyone.'

Mama also said 'A dog who will bring a bone, will carry one.