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

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.

Leaders don't cheat

When we were together before, the world was small to us, but as you grew bigger to life and the world became desirous to living, we became smaller to each other.

Tragedies break us, yet sometimes they make us.

Keep up appearances; there lies the test. The world will give thee credit for the rest.

His dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him.

What poor education I have received has been gained in the University of Life.

Calvin [Trillin] was much more of a mover and a shaker. That's all I'm saying. I was a "weenie." That was another term back then.

It's all very simple. But maybe because it's so simple, it's also hard.

Sin makes us moral quadriplegics.

It's almost a standard tactic, really, to try to minimize any effort that people in the entertainment business or in any public occupation make to express themselves.