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.'

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

the man who is pure, and who dares, does all things.

First we are tested on our strengths, then we our strengths are tested

Between words and objects one can create new relations and specify characteristics of language and objects generally ignored in everyday life.

Liquor is the chloroform which enables the poor man to endure the painful operation of living.

Never forget what you learned in the light when you are in the dark.

Logic is the art of thinking well: the mind, like the body, requires to be trained before it can use its powers in the most advantageous way.

Nothing is truer in a sense than a funeral oration: It tells precisely what the dead man should have been.

Great entrepreneurs focus intensely on an opportunity where others see nothing.

I always wanted to interview Michael Jackson, because I just wanted to humanize him.

My philosophy of life can be summed up in four words: It can't be helped.