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.
ARETHA FRANKLINBeing 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.
ARETHA FRANKLINI’ve never recorded anything I didn’t like.
ARETHA FRANKLINMy faith always has been and always will be important to me.
ARETHA FRANKLINI 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.
ARETHA FRANKLINMusic 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.
ARETHA FRANKLINI’m the lady next door when I’m not on stage.
ARETHA FRANKLINWhen God loves you, what can be better than that?
ARETHA FRANKLINI sing to the realists; people who accept it like it is.
ARETHA FRANKLINIf you disrespect everybody that you run into, how in the world do you think everybody’s supposed to respect you?
ARETHA FRANKLINGospel goes with me wherever I go. Gospel is a constant with me.
ARETHA FRANKLINI’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.
ARETHA FRANKLINI donate heavily to the church and various churches in the Detroit community and food banks.
ARETHA FRANKLINI know people I feel are extremely talented, but I don’t know that I’ve ever heard any geniuses.
ARETHA FRANKLINIf 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.
ARETHA FRANKLINAnd 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.
ARETHA FRANKLINWomen have broken through the glass ceiling, and they’re now more and more in the power seats.
ARETHA FRANKLIN