Politics are not my arena. Music is.

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.

You made a writer keep faith in his pen.

It was a symposium of horror and heroism, the like of which has not been known in the civilized world since man established his dominion over the sea.

It means that if they misunderstood Comfort and Joy, they misunderstood my other films.

Most of the bright people don't work for you - no matter who you are.

Calvin:"It says here that 'religion is the opiate of the masses.'...what do you suppose that means?" Television: "...it means that Karl Marx hadn't seen anything yet

The early church didn’t say, ‘Look what the world is coming to!’ They said, ‘Look what has come into the world’!

I cannot teach anybody how to cook. All I can do is show them, share methods with them.

I'll pretend that I want you for what is on the inside.

A clever graduate student could teach Fourier something new, but surely no one claims that he could teach Archimedes to reason better.

Usually Mexico, or always Mexico has defended itself and its territory.