Franklin: "I've met my share of guys who have insulted and assaulted my intelligence with their stories and games. I say hello and goodbye!"

Franklin: "Music changes, and I'm gonna change right along with it."

Franklin: "People really don't have to give you anything, so appreciate what people give you."

Franklin: "It's easy for a singer to sometimes pick up on another singer's sound, but that's just copying."

Franklin: "I'm never tired of going to the studio. I enjoy recording and documenting everything and trying new things."

Franklin: "I think women and children and older people are the three least-respected groups in our society."

Franklin: "Being the Queen is not all about singing, and being a diva is not all about singing. It has much to do with your service to people. And your social contributions to your community and your civic contributions as well."

Franklin: "We all require and want respect, man or woman, black or white. It's our basic human right."

Franklin: "I like writing and don't confine myself to just the words or just the music. But I don't particularly write songs with myself in mind."

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

Franklin: "I go to the healthier foods that are less chemically treated. I am drinking lots of water to get rid of the toxins in my body. It's a natural flushing. Water flushes your system and is also very good for your skin."

Franklin: "I love all music."

Franklin: "We didn't have music videos. You weren't an overnight sensation. You had to work at it and learn your craft: how to take care of your voice, how to pace your concerts, all that trial and error."

Franklin: "My generation, we came along, we had to really know our craft."

Franklin: "I'm not ever going to retire. That's - that wouldn't be good, for one, just to go somewhere and sit down and do nothing."

Franklin: "In terms of helping people understand and know each other a little better, music is universal - universal and transporting."

Franklin: "You cannot define a person on just one thing. You can't just forget all these wonderful and good things that a person has done because one thing didn't come off the way you thought it should come off."

Franklin: "I've never recorded anything I didn't like."

Franklin: "Who hasn't had a weight issue? If not the body, certainly the big head!"

Franklin: "You have singers that are trained, and then you have natural singers: people that, in my opinion, were just born to sing. And hopefully, I am one of them."

Franklin: "Music 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."

Franklin: "It's very satisfying. To perform the way you want to. And the way you know that you can."

Franklin: "I think it would be a far greater world if people were kinder and more respectful to each other."

Franklin: "Be your own artist, and always be confident in what you're doing. If you're not going to be confident, you might as well not be doing it."

Franklin: "Yes, I've always been fashion conscious."

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

Franklin: "I 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."

Franklin: "I know people I feel are extremely talented, but I don't know that I've ever heard any geniuses."

Franklin: "What is auto-tune? I don't even know what auto-tune is."

Franklin: "Now, occasionally I will still have that quarter pounder because I love fast food, but you have to keep it to a minimum."

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

Franklin: "Sometimes, what you're looking for is already there."

Franklin: "I don't do crazy things - I just don't."

Franklin: "I'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."

Franklin: "Men have always been gentlemen to me - responsible people with healthy attitudes."

Franklin: "Sam Cooke had a huge influence on me. He left the gospel field at one point and went into the secular, and he had this huge hit, 'You Send Me.' Irma, my older sister, and I heard 'You Send Me' on the radio while we were driving through the South one night. We had to stop the car. We got out and danced around the car out on the highway."

Franklin: "Every birthday is a gift. Every day is a gift."