Skip to content
quotesby

16 Ray Charles Quotes

Ray Charles shares heartfelt, musical reflections that speak to anyone who loves soul-filled memories.

Ray Charles quotes

  1. I got a woman way over town, That's good to me, Oh yeah!

    #1

  2. Tell your Mama Tell your Pa Gonna send you back to Arkansas

    #2

  3. Other arms reach out to me Other eyes smile tenderly Still in peaceful dreams I see The road leads back to you. Georgia, oh Georgia, no peace I find... Just an old sweet song Keeps Georgia on my mind.

    #3

  4. Hit the road, Jack, and don't you come back no more, no more, no more, no more.

    #4

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

    #5

  6. 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.

    #6

  7. 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.

    #7

  8. 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.

    #8

  9. 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.

    #9

  10. Love is a special word, and I use it only when I mean it. You say the word too much and it becomes cheap.

    #10

  11. Music has been around a long time, and there's going to be music long after Ray Charles is dead. I just want to leave my mark, leave something musically good behind.

    #11

  12. Music is nothing separate from me. It is me... You'd have to remove the music surgically.

    #12

  13. My music had roots which I'd dug up from my own childhood, musical roots buried in the darkest soil.

    #13

  14. 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.

    #14

  15. You better live every day like your last because one day you're going to be right.

    #15

  16. All people look the same to me.

    #16