"I never said I was a genius. I never said I was a cornerstone. I've never said I'm a legend in my own time. You never heard me say nothing like that."
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Quote collection
Ray Charles quotes (page 4 of 5)
82 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"I don't know what would have happened to me if I hadn't been able to hear."
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"You ask me what I'd like to do that I haven't done and I say 'Nothin'!' I haven't any mountains to climb or oceans to swim. I've been an extremely blessed individual. ... I'm not clamorin' for more trinkets. If I were to die tomorrow, I could say I've had a good life."
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"When I was going blind, I didn't turn to God. It didn't seem to me then - and it doesn't seem to me now - that those items were His concern. Early on, I figured I better begin to learn how to count on myself, instead of counting on supernatural forces."
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"Art Tatum -- he was a genius. And Einstein, not me."
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"I always stay out of the rehearsal room you know when they first come in. Then once they had chance to play a little bit, then I walk in. Because I've seen guys fall apart."
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"I was born with music inside me. That's the only explanation I know of"
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"Music is nothing separate from me. It is me... You'd have to remove the music surgically."
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"If somebody don't like something that I do, that's his or her prerogative. Just like it's mine."
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"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."
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"I set my own rhythm, and I do believe it was usually a little faster than most other people's."
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"All my life I've always been so blue, born to lose, and now I'm losing you."
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"I heard someone say that all black people got rhythm. Bullshit."
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"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."
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"I sing what I sing true. Each night I sing it the way I feel that night."
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"I got a cow that went dry and a hen that won't lay, a big stack of bills that gets bigger each day."
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"I had to pawn my clothes just to pay my rent."
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"The fact of the matter is, you don't give up what's natural. Anything I've fantasized about, I've done."
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"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."
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"I used to sing like Nat King Cole. I mean he was the guy when I was comin' up, and you know, man, people used to say of me, "Damn, he sure do sound like Nat King Cole." But there was a day, and luckily for me it was early, when I woke up and asked myself, "Well, when are the ask me to sing because I sound like me?" So my advice is, never do anything that you don't like."
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