Quotes from Ray Charles

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

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

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.

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

Rhythm and blues used to be called race music. ... This music was going on for years, but nobody paid any attention to it.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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!

I was born with music inside me

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

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.

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'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.