Top 77 Aretha Franklin Quotes

People really don’t have to give you anything, so appreciate what people give you.

I always felt rock and roll was very, very wholesome music.

I love the Ritz.

I certainly enjoy Usher, Beyonce, Chris Brown, and there is Fantasia; these people will be around a while. They’ve got it. They’ve got the ‘it’ factor.

The duet with Frank Sinatra, ‘What Now My Love,’ is one of my favorites.

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.

It really is an honor if I can be inspirational to a younger singer or person. It means I’ve done my job.

I came up in gospel.

We’ve come a long way, but there is still a lot of discrimination.

Women absolutely deserve respect.

In terms of helping people understand and know each other a little better, music is universal – universal and transporting.

I picked up some wonderful things just listening to other pianists that I appreciate, and that would be Herbie Hancock, Oscar Peterson, Vladimir Horowitz, and Art Tatum. Those are the pianists I really enjoy and admire.

I think it would be a far greater world if people were kinder and more respectful to each other.

My mentor was Clara Ward of the famous Ward gospel singers of Philadelphia. And my dad was my coach. He coached me. And just my natural love for music is what drove me.

I wanted to design a line based on Hollywood’s Golden Era. I talked with Stephen Burrows and with Willi Smith and with one or two other people, but it just seems like such a hard field to break into. I need someone like Calvin Klein’s manager to get behind me!

Most of what I wear, I select myself. You can’t please everybody, and as long as I’m comfortable with what I wear, I think that’s what’s important.

Yeah, I want a job in Barack’s Cabinet. How about a job, Mr. Obama? Please? Please?

I loved going to church. I enjoyed being a part of the choir and just doing things in and around the church. But as a young girl, I certainly enjoyed watching and listening to my dad.

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

You could call my piano my trademark, or one of my trademarks.

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

When I first started, I wore Ceil Chapman gowns. I’ve been wondering for years what happened to the Ceil Chapman line of clothing.

John Legend is, in my opinion, classic. He is one of the best finds that has come along in a long time.

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.

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

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’ve done the Kennedy Center many times. I’ve sang for Marian Anderson. I’ve sang for Marion Williams. I’ve sang for Lionel Hampton.

Many of my friends were there at Motown. The studio was only a few blocks from where my dad’s home was, where we lived.

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

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

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.

You have singers that are trained, and then you have natural singers: people that, in my opinion, were just born to sing. And hopefully, I am one of them.

Yes, I’ve always been fashion conscious.

As a very small girl, I listened to Charlie Parker and loved him and Max Roach and people like that.

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

It’s easy for a singer to sometimes pick up on another singer’s sound, but that’s just copying.

Intermittently in my concert format, I sing a little jazz, a little scatting.

Men don’t like eating out of cans. And I don’t like eating out of cans too much, either.

I think you have a lot of really good artists today. You have your Beyonce, Usher, Nicki Minaj and the like. But our generation, the artists were stronger. You’re talking about myself, Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, Roberta Flack, Gladys Knight, The Temptations, The Four Tops.

I don’t do crazy things – I just don’t.

I haven’t had the occasion to meet Adele. She lives in England. So when I’m flying, or when she comes over here, perhaps we’ll have a chance. I think she’s a very fine singer, a very strong writer and performer.

I just loved working with George Benson, whom I very much enjoy musically and as a person.

My generation, we came along, we had to really know our craft.

President Bush bestowed the Congressional Medal on myself.

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

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

The love of my life? I’m much too young to answer that question.

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.’

For many years, I’ve wanted to do one, and I’ve always mentioned it to the chieftains, and they would say things like, ‘Oh well. Christmas albums don’t sell,’ and things like that. But that’s not the point. Christmas albums are important. The music is important. The season is important.

The term ‘Sock it to me!’ was a big, big thing in our neighborhood – all the kids were saying it.

What is auto-tune? I don’t even know what auto-tune is.

I really don’t have any shelf music.

I think women and children and older people are the three least-respected groups in our society.

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

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

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.

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

I guess I could’ve been a prima ballerina. Or a nurse. Aretha Nightingale!

I still have perfect diction!

Politics are not my arena. Music is.

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

Well, 20 Grammys is not bad.

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

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.

‘Rocking With Leroy’ used to come on when I would come in from school. It was a very, very big R&B broadcast of the day when I was a young girl. And I would come in and put my books down, lie down on the floor, and listen to ‘Rocking With Leroy.’

I like being married. It’s an institution that I like.

Art Tatum was a genius.

I’m really an old-fashioned girl – I like to be romanced.

I just got into Mike Tyson. My security people kept saying, ‘Haven’t you seen him yet?’ Well, I finally did, and he’s got a real knockout punch.

There’s a lot of great singers out here.

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.

I don’t think I was a catalyst for the women’s movement.

I sing, and the musicians kind of fit things around me.

Beyonce is a very hard-working woman. Astrologically, for whatever it’s worth, she’s a Virgo – like Michael Jackson, a hard worker.

My upbringing was in the church. We had to attend regularly. And, of course, the church provided a training ground for me, so to speak, as a young vocalist and certainly gave me all of the spiritual values that I needed as a young lady.

I can say that my big records and my success have been due to the backing which Atlantic have put behind me.

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