Aretha Franklin quotes:

Being the Queen is not all about singing, and being a diva is not all about singing. It has much to do with your service to people. And your social contributions to your community and your civic contributions as well.

And I was booked once to go on 'Ed Sullivan' and I got bumped and ran out the back door crying.

I love producing, writing. I rarely write with other writers unless I have a real great respect for them. Like Burt Bacharach, or Carole Sager, or Stevie Wonder. Somebody like Smokey - like that. Otherwise, I choose to write alone.

Music does a lot of things for a lot of people. It's transporting, for sure. It can take you right back, years back, to the very moment certain things happened in your life. It's uplifting, it's encouraging, it's strengthening.

I'm a big woman. I need big hair.

We all require and want respect, man or woman, black or white. It's our basic human right.

I donate heavily to the church and various churches in the Detroit community and food banks.

Parents have to really talk to their children before they leave home.

I love 'Anne of Green Gables.' I have for years. That's one of my favourite things. She's such a can-do kind of girl; that's why I'm crazy about her.

I'm never tired of going to the studio. I enjoy recording and documenting everything and trying new things.

Falling out of love is like losing weight. It's a lot easier putting it on than taking it off.

Don't say Aretha is making a comeback, because I've never been away!

Being a singer is a natural gift. It means I'm using to the highest degree possible the gift that God gave me to use. I'm happy with that.

The milk of kindness flows through my body, I shall follow Jesus to the Taco Bell and give thanks.

I think the hardest thing is losing weight. That's the hardest thing more than anything else.

Be your own artist, and always be confident in what youre doing. If youre not going to be confident, you might as well not be doing it.

You're a no good heartbreaker, you're a liar, and you're a cheat. I don't know why I let you do these things to me.

Be your own artist, and always be confident in what you're doing. If you're not going to be confident, you might as well not be doing it.

I saw the Supremes when they were still singing in little black skirts and white blouses.

Call in the Caped Crusader, Green Hornet, Kato, too. I'm in so much trouble I don't know what to do.

I am doing what I love to do, and you cannot beat that, especially when the audience appreciates what you prepare for them. It's very, very gratifying.

As a parent you try to maintain a certain amount of control and so you have this tug-of-war ... You have to learn when to let go. And that's not easy.

If a song's about something I've experienced or that could've happened to me it's good. But if it's alien to me, I couldn't lend anything to it. Because that's what soul is all about.

When God loves you, what can be better than that?

Women have broken through the glass ceiling, and they're now more and more in the power seats.

My heart is still there in gospel music. It never left . . . I'm gonna make a gospel record and tell Jesus I cannot bear these burdens alone.

And I've been hurt hurt bad. I might be just twenty-six, but I'm an old woman in disguise twenty-six goin'on sixty-five.

Columbia was a wonderful label for me. Wonderful. The records I made there garnered me an audience. I won a number of polls during the years that I was at Columbia. The Downbeat Jazz Poll. Leonard Feather, who was a huge critic back in the day, different polls that he had. The Playboy poll, a number of polls. So the music was great.

I don't feel one's personal medical condition is everybody's business. It just isn't something you advertise, and it's not open to discussion.

I sing to the realists; people who accept it like it is.

I'm the lady next door when I'm not on stage.

I used to have hamburgers coming and going, especially when I was on the road. Now, occasionally I will still have that quarter pounder because I love fast food, but you have to keep it to a minimum. I am now opting for salads and just healthier lunches.

I go to the healthier foods that are less chemically treated. I am drinking lots of water to get rid of the toxins in my body. It's a natural flushing. Water flushes your system and is also very good for your skin.

Soul is a constant. It's cultural. It's always going to be there, in different flavors and degrees.

People really don't have to give you anything, so appreciate what people give you. And just don't let that go to your head, whatever it is they give you.

I sing to the realists, people who accept it like it is. I express problems. There are tears when it's sad and smiles when it's happy. It seems simple to me, but for some people, I guess feelin' takes courage.

If you disrespect everybody that you run into, how in the world do you think everybody's supposed to respect you?

Better friends than lovers. Sugar can't you see? You need you and I really need me.

My faith always has been and always will be important to me.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T, find out what it means to me.

I've been around long enough for people to know who I am and what my contributions are. They know me as more than just an artist. I think they know me as a woman as well.

Music changes, and I'm gonna change right along with it.

I've never recorded anything I didn't like.

Judy Garland is a singer with a capital S. And talk about soul. This woman was soul personified. Judy Garland is a class by herself.

R&B is not a fad; it's the truth.

On the sly, scoping for love.

The man who gets me is getting one hell of a woman.

I remember singing around the house to records that were playing. All kinds of music. And the great James Cleveland was often in our house, and I grew up with his sound as well.

I love to sing. It's just a natural thing for me.

Trying to grow up is hurting. You make mistakes. You try to learn from them, and when you don't, it hurts even more.

I know people I feel are extremely talented, but I don't know that I've ever heard any geniuses.

Yes, I've always been fashion conscious.

...the people at large absolutely gave James Brown respect. He was an original like a Rembrandt or a Picasso

It's so glamorous, you have to see it." (describing the $92 million Rock & Roll Hall of Fame)

Let's start with the church. As you know, it's my background, it's a natural setting for me and it's definitely my roots.

I've always felt that rock & roll was very, very wholesome.

I was in my dad's church, his Baptist church, and I think the first song I ever performed was 'Jesus Be a Fence Around Me.'

I like Beyonce's music - some of it, not all of it.

Politics are not my arena. Music is.

Gospel goes with me wherever I go. Gospel is a constant with me.

Now, occasionally I will still have that quarter pounder because I love fast food, but you have to keep it to a minimum.

Clark Terry is an American Master. I love to listen to him, particularly 'Mumbles.' I was so delighted when we received degrees together, along with Edward Kennedy, at the New England Conservatory in 1997.