Ray Charles

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

I don’t know about other writers, but for myself, to write I must be relatively quiet – it’s very difficult to write with the telephone and the doorbell ringing and conversation going on; I’m not that good a writer to write through all that!

Ray Charles

I don’t know what would have happened to me if I hadn’t been able to hear.

Ray Charles

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

I had to pawn my clothes just to pay my rent.

Ray Charles

I set my own rhythm and it was usually a little faster than other people’s.

Ray Charles

I sing what I sing true. Each night I sing it the way I feel that night.

Ray Charles

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

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

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