Ray Charles - Music Quotes

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

Ray Charles
Rhythm and blues used to be called race music. … This music was going on for years, but nobody paid any attention to it.

Ray Charles
I was born with music inside me. That's the only explanation I know of, since none of my relatives could sing or play an instrument. 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 release feelings inside me through my songs. I take some of the sadness, some of the heartache, and turn it out. I'm able to stave off the severity. By expressing myself in music, I can soften the blow. But those melodies and rhythms can only do so much.

Ray Charles
Music is nothing separate from me. It is me. I can't retire from music any more than I can retire from my liver. You'd have to remove the music from me surgically — like you were taking out my appendix.

Ray Charles
On music:
It was a necessity for me—like food or water.

Ray Charles