"I've been called a diva, queen diva, diva supreme, and I love it.  However, that's really for others to decide, not me."

"No one loves a party more than I. I am a people person."

"Soul music is cultural, and it should forever be enshrined as one of the world's greatest forms of music. It's a people, a nation."

"I believe in the tradition of great music - solid songs, intelligent lyrics, superb accompaniment, and flawless production. That's how I was brought up, and that's how I maintain standards."

"I am Aretha, upbeat, straight-ahead, and not to be worn out by men and left singing the blues."

"I never felt inferior or less than.  I was blessed to grow up in a environment where self-worth was underscored."

"If I have reached the goal of being a good mother, and have been a guiding light and have inspired my sons to be proud, creative, independent, and productive citizens, then I have reached a priceless pinnacle in parenting."

"I think the hardest thing is losing weight. That's the hardest thing more than anything else."

"I might be just twenty-six, but I'm an old woman in disguise ... twenty-six goin'on sixty-five."

"Trying to grow up is hurting, you know. You make mistakes. You try to learn from them, and when you don't, it hurts even more."

"If 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."

"I'm gonna make a gospel record and tell Jesus I cannot bear these burdens alone."

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

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

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

"I'm a big woman. I need big hair."

"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'm the lady next door when I'm not on stage."

 

Grammy albums