Quotes About Influence

Everyone felt like they knew Ray Charles and in a way they did, because he was embodied by his music.

Little Richard was it for me, man. Later, it was Ray Charles and Bobby 'Blue' Bland, B.B. King.

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.

Listen to any cantor, any good hazan, sing and you can hear a little bit of Ray Charles going on.

Who isn't a fan of Ray Charles?

When I was in Boston, I was doing a lot of Americana stuff - I fell in love with Ray LaMontagne, Patty Griffin, and Neil Young.

When I was in middle school, the librarian there was secretary for a couple of groups of professional writers. She introduced me to Ray Bradbury and Richard Matheson, and I became very friendly with them over a period of two years. Both of them were very generous with their time, guidance and advice.

Ray Santos is one of my personal heroes. I model my life on people like him.

I have a lot of love and respect for Melissa Etheridge. I love Joe Cocker, Ray LaMontagne, Feist.

My earliest memories of music are probably my dad listening to a bunch of outlaw country, but also old R&B and Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin. But, you know, I had rock phases and liked more modern R&B acts. I've always listened to all kinds of music, and I like all kinds of music.

Instead of cartoons, I was the kid who was watching Food Network, falling asleep to Emeril and Rachael Ray.

Satyajit Ray has played a very major part in my career. He was the one who gave me the launch platform when he selected me for his 'Apur Sansar.'

I have grown up watching Satyajit Ray, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Basu Chatterjee, Ritwik Ghatak, Raj Kapoor; listening to SD Burman, RD, Kishore Kumar and Salil Chowdhury.

I love Ray Charles.

My father, Inder Raj Anand - a famous writer in his own right - was a great friend of Satyajit Ray.

My dad, Billy Ray, he had a huge hit in the '90s with 'Achy Breaky Heart.' And, you know, as a kid I always said I wanted to be just like my dad. And it's crazy - just be careful what you wish for because I had the same thing he had, which was a huge hit off his first album.

If any single human being is responsible for all this nonsense I've done with my life, it's Ray Harryhausen... In 'Kubo,' you can see some of his influence throughout.

I like Raymond Carver's poetry a lot.

I truly believe that we're about to enter a second golden age of design. The first one was in the '50s and '60s, when designers like Raymond Loewy, Charles Eames, George Nelson and Dieter Rams were shepherds of the brands they were working with. They had influence over the products and how companies communicated and promoted themselves.

My literary heroes all wrote about L.A.: Joseph Wambaugh, Ross Macdonald, and Raymond Chandler were the three writers that made me want to be a writer.

Raymond Carver is good. I think he'll be appreciated more and more. He's an easy writer to imitate.

I still love Carson McCullers and Raymond Carver and Toni Morrison and James Baldwin.

I think politics is a reason why a lot of stuff doesn't get done. There's a lot of favors, and a lot of people are held back by their intentions of being re-elected or the things that they owe their party or constituents.

Any time a president is re-elected, he has a little more political clout to get things done.