To me, music is entertainment - what else can it be? In fact, it's the only language I know of that's universal.
Interpretation
Music serves as a universal form of entertainment and communication.
In this quote, Ray Charles emphasizes the significance of music as a universal language that transcends cultural and linguistic barriers. He views music primarily as a source of entertainment, highlighting its role in bringing people together through shared experiences and emotions, regardless of their backgrounds.
In practice
This quote can be used in a speech about the power of music at a community event.
I suppose I've always done my share of crying, especially when there's no other way to contain my feelings. I know that men ain't supposed to cry, but I think that's wrong. Crying's always been a way for me to get things out which are buried deep, deep down. When I sing, I often cry. Crying is feeling, and feeling is being human. Oh yes, I cry.
I never wanted to be famous. I only wanted to be great.
Just because you can't see anything , doesn't mean you should shut your eyes.
Any artist, when he goes in to record, should have the feeling that any song he records can be a hit. This may sound egotistical, but it makes sense.
When 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.
The important thing is to feel your music, really feel it and believe it.
An artist has no home in Europe except in Paris.
There is absolutely no substitute for the best. Good food cannot be made of inferior ingredients masked with high flavor. It is true thrift to use the best ingredients available and to waste nothing.
A story begins with this nebulous feeling that’s hard to get a hold of and you’re testing your feelings and assumptions, testing what you believe. They end up turning into keepsakes and mementos –like amber in which a memory gets trapped.
An artisan without memories, whose only dream was to die of fatigue in the oblivion and misery of his little gold fishes.
On the other hand, what I like my music to do to me is awaken the ghosts inside of me. Not the demons, you understand, but the ghosts.
Bottom line, I have to follow what my soul says, or my spirit. And my spirit said that poetry and the arts should be without borders, should be without political borders.
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