Ray Charles (1930–2004) was an American musician who revolutionized the music landscape by blending various genres like rhythm and blues, gospel, and jazz to create soul music. His hits, including “What’d I Say,” “Georgia on My Mind,” and “I Can’t Stop Loving You,” propelled him to fame and earned him critical acclaim. Charles’s distinct voice, skillful piano playing, and innovative arrangements made him a trailblazer in the industry. Beyond music, he was a prominent civil rights activist, using his platform to advocate for equality and refusing to perform at segregated venues. His activism contributed to the desegregation of the music industry. Ray Charles’s legacy as a musical innovator and a champion of social justice endures, influencing generations of musicians and earning him a place as one of the most influential figures in American music history.

Ray Charles Quotes

1. “Live each day like it’s your last, ’cause one day you gonna be right.”
— Ray Charles

2. “Don’t go backwards – you’ve already been there.”
— Ray Charles

3. “Music to me is like breathing. I don’t get tired of breathing, I don’t get tired of music.”
— Ray Charles

4. “Hit the road Jack, don’tcha come back no more, no more, no more, no more. Hit the road Jack, don’tcha come back no more.”
— Ray Charles

5. “I never wanted to be famous. I only wanted to be great.”
— Ray Charles

6. “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.”
— Ray Charles

7. “It’s like Duke Ellington said, there are only two kinds of music – good and bad. And you can tell when something is good.”
— Ray Charles

8. “Music is the chalk to the blackboard of life. Without it everything is a blank slate.”
— Ray Charles

9. “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.”
— Ray Charles

10. “Just because you can’t see anything, doesn’t mean you should shut your eyes.”
— Ray Charles

11. “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.”
— Ray Charles

12. “I was born with music inside me.”
— Ray Charles

13. “Love is a special word, and I use it only when I mean it. You say the word too much and it becomes cheap.”
— Ray Charles

14. “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.’”
— Ray Charles

15. “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.”
— Ray Charles

16. “What I’ve got to live up to, is being myself. If I do that, the rest will take care of itself.”
— Ray Charles

17. “Absence makes the heart grow fonder and tears are only rain to make love grow.”
— Ray Charles

18. “The role of the designer is basically that of a good host, anticipating the needs of the guest.”
— Ray Charles

19. “There are many spokes on the wheel of life. First, we’re here to explore new possibilities.”
— Ray Charles

20. “I don’t know what would have happened to me if I hadn’t been able to hear.”
— Ray Charles

21. “You got to set your mind right and the rest will come to you naturally. No restrictions, no hang-ups, no stupid rules, no formalities, no forbidden fruit – just everyone getting and giving as much as he and she can.”
— Ray Charles

22. “The fact of the matter is, you don’t give up what’s natural. Anything I’ve fantasized about, I’ve done.”
— Ray Charles

23. “Dreams, if they’re any good, are always a little bit crazy.”
— Ray Charles

24. “I got a cow that went dry and a hen that won’t lay, a big stack of bills that gets bigger each day.”
— Ray Charles

25. “The important thing is to feel your music, really feel it and believe it.”
— Ray Charles

26. “There’s such a thing as too much happiness and sadness. What I’m after is contentment.”
— Ray Charles

27. “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.”
— Ray Charles

28. “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.”
— Ray Charles

29. “Learning to read music in Braille and play by ear helped me develop a damn good memory.”
— Ray Charles

30. “When I was going blind, I didn’t turn to God. It didn’t seem to me then – and it doesn’t seem to me now – that those items were His concern. Early on, I figured I better begin to learn how to count on myself, instead of counting on supernatural forces.”
— Ray Charles

31. “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.”
— Ray Charles

32. “Sometimes my dreams are so deep that I dream that I’m dreaming.”
— Ray Charles

33. “I don’t think any of us really knows why we’re here. But I think we’re supposed to believe we’re here for a purpose.”
— Ray Charles

34. “If you can play the blues, you can do anything.”
— Ray Charles

35. “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.”
— Ray Charles

36. “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.”
— Ray Charles

37. “I really feel that if you’re gonna be good, you gotta practice… Practice whatever the hell you do.”
— Ray Charles

38. “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.”
— Ray Charles

39. “Women anchor me. They’re there when I need them. They’re sensitive to me, and I’m sensitive to them. I’m not saying I’ve loved that many women.”
— Ray Charles

40. “Music to me is just like breathing. I have to have it. It’s part of me.”
— Ray Charles

41. “Other arms reach out to me, Other eyes smile tenderly, Still in peaceful dreams I see, The road leads back to you.”
— Ray Charles

42. “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.”
— Ray Charles

43. “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.”
— Ray Charles

44. “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.”
— Ray Charles

45. “Just like you can buy grades of silk, you can buy grades of justice.”
— Ray Charles

46. “I just want to make my mark, leave something musically good behind.”
— Ray Charles

47. “Drunken talk isn’t meant to be printed in the paper.”
— Ray Charles

48. “Music is about the only thing left that people don’t fight over.”
— Ray Charles

49. “All my life I’ve always been so blue, born to lose, and now I’m losing you.”
— Ray Charles

50. “Art Tatum – he was a genius. And Einstein, not me.”
— Ray Charles

51. “I had to pawn my clothes just to pay my rent.”
— Ray Charles

52. “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.”
— Ray Charles

53. “My music had roots which I’d dug up from my own childhood, musical roots buried in the darkest soil.”
— Ray Charles

54. “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.”
— Ray Charles

55. “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.”
— Ray Charles

56. “Sighted people, you gotta deal with them.”
— Ray Charles

57. “Goodbye don’t mean gone.”
— Ray Charles

58. “If somebody don’t like something that I do, that’s his or her prerogative. Just like it’s mine.”
— Ray Charles

59. “I set my own rhythm and it was usually a little faster than other people’s.”
— Ray Charles

60. “I sing what I sing true. Each night I sing it the way I feel that night.”
— Ray Charles

61. “When I’m having a rehearsal and there are new guys who come in to try out for the job, I always let my conductor rehearse them. Because I don’t want the guy to get bent out of shape, because I walk in.”
— Ray Charles

62. “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.”
— Ray Charles

63. “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.”
— Ray Charles

64. “I always stay out of the rehearsal room you know when they first come in. Then once they had chance to play a little bit, then I walk in. Because I’ve seen guys fall apart.”
— Ray Charles

65. “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.”
— Ray Charles

66. “I can’t help what I sound like. What I sound like is what i am. You know? I cannot be anything other that what I am.”
— Ray Charles

67. “Music is my life, professionally, for nearly 60 years. To be recognized by the academy is still the highest honor.”
— Ray Charles