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

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.

We can't always have our druthers.

I'm not sure I make old bones in parliament. It's an amazing experience to have had but I can't see myself being Mother of the House.

Struggle is gruesome only for the weak.

One should really use the camera as though tomorrow you'd be stricken blind.

The stillness of prayer is the most essential condition for fruitful action. Before all else, the disciple kneels down.

Every man is a mob, a chain gang of idiots.

I'll go on making films until I make one that pleases me from the first to the last frame. Then I'll quit.

Romantic love is a passionate spiritual-emotional-sexual attachment between a man and a woman that reflects a high regard for the value of each other's person.

All your personalities are absolute cover-ups, hiding your individuality.

Out of the frying pan, into the fire.