Quote

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

Ray Charles

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Ray Charles
Age: 71 †
Born: 1932
Born: September 23
Died: 2004
Died: June 10
Composer
Jazz Musician
Music Arranger
Musician
Pianist
Recording Artist
Saxophonist
Singer
Singer-Songwriter
Soul Musician
Vocalist
Albany
Georgia
Ray Charles Robinson
Raymond Charles Robinson Peter
Contentment
Sadness
Happiness
Thing
Much

More quotes by Ray Charles

Image
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
Image
[On his heroin addiction:] 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.
Ray Charles
Image
Art Tatum -- he was a genius. And Einstein, not me.
Ray Charles
Image
Live each day like it's your last, 'cause one day you gonna be right
Ray Charles
Image
I heard someone say that all black people got rhythm. Bullshit.
Ray Charles
Image
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
Image
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
Image
There are many spokes on the wheel of life. First, we're here to explore new possibilities.
Ray Charles
Image
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
Image
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
Image
Goodbye don't mean gone.
Ray Charles
Image
The fact of the matter is, you don't give up what's natural. Anything I've fantasized about, I've done.
Ray Charles
Image
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
Image
Dreams, if they're any good, are always a little bit crazy.
Ray Charles
Image
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
Image
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
Image
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.
Ray Charles
Image
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
Image
I was born with music inside me. That's the only explanation I know of
Ray Charles
Image
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