Ray Charles

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.

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.

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.

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

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

Music to me is like breathing. I don’t get tired of breathing, I don’t get tired of music.

Musicians should never forget we’re blessed. We have a special gift that people enjoy through us.

The jazziest American contribution to the vocabulary of English is Jazz itself.

I listen to all kinds of songs. There’s something to be learned from every type of music and from the one making it, whether it’s pop or jazz or hip-hop.

People involve themselves with the superficiality of Jazz without digging for its soul.

Improvisation is the ability to talk to oneself.

It is evidently known, beyond contradiction, that New Orleans is the cradle of Jazz and I, myself, happened to be the creator in the year 1902.

[moving to Las Vegas] It was sort of like a man getting married – you don’t have to go out looking for girls, you’ve got your girl with you. I could go to casinos any time I had money and wanted to, so I actually went less.

Jazz is the sound of surprise.

Difference between sex and love? Well, you’re not always sure you’re in love. But when you’re having sex, there’s really no mistaking it.

You not only have to know your own instrument, you must know the others and how to back them up at all times. That’s jazz.

When rock music came in, I wasn’t bitter about it. I was puzzled.

You can separate the men from the boys and ballads.

I’m a musician at heart, I know I’m not really a singer. I couldn’t compete with real singers. But I sing because the public buys it.

Jazz is a music that allows a person to express his deepest, most personal self.

You have a mentor or teacher and you learn all he can show you.