Retha Quotes

1. "My mouth blooms like a cut.I've been wronged all year, tediousnights, nothing but rough elbows in themand delicate boxes of Kleenex calling crybabycrybaby, you fool! Before today my body was useless.Now it's tearing at its square corners.It's tearing old Mary's garments off, knot by knotand see - Now it's shot full of these electric bolts.Zing! A resurrection! Once it was a boat, quite woodenand with no business, no salt water under itand in need of some paint. It was no morethan a group of boards. But you hoisted her, rigged her.She's been elected.My nerves are turned on. I hear them likemusical instruments. Where there was silencethe drums, the strings are incurably playing. You did this.Pure genius at work. Darling, the composer has steppedinto fire."
Author: Anne Sexton

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

3. "I could feel the day offering itself to me,and I wanted nothing morethan to be in the moment-but which moment?Not that one, or that one, or that one,"
Author: Billy Collins

4. "The History TeacherTrying to protect his students' innocencehe told them the Ice Age was really justthe Chilly Age, a period of a million yearswhen everyone had to wear sweaters.And the Stone Age became the Gravel Age,named after the long driveways of the time.The Spanish Inquisition was nothing morethan an outbreak of questions such as"How far is it from here to Madrid?""What do you call the matador's hat?"The War of the Roses took place in a garden,and the Enola Gay dropped one tiny atom on Japan.The children would leave his classroomfor the playground to torment the weakand the smart,mussing up their hair and breaking their glasses,while he gathered up his notes and walked homepast flower beds and white picket fences,wondering if they would believe that soldiersin the Boer War told long, rambling storiesdesigned to make the enemy nod off."
Author: Billy Collins

5. "Aretha with no goals, eternally single & one step soft of heaven/ let it be understood that she owns this melody along with her emotional diplomats & her earth & her musical secrets"
Author: Bob Dylan

6. "We would parachute in like typical asshole Americans and be completely clueless about what kind of trip we were actually on, asking questions like, "When do we start shooting the animals? Where is the freshest sushi? When do we meet Aretha Franklin, and where are the squash courts?" I'd also insist on hunting live lobster and killing it with my handgun."
Author: Chelsea Handler

7. "Thus it was up to God, to Him alonein His own ways - by one or both, I say - to give man back his whole life and perfection.But since a deed done is more prized the moreit manifests within itself the markof the loving heart and goodness of the doer,the Everlasting Love, whose seal is plainon all the wax of the world was pleased to movein all His ways to raise you up again.There was not, nor will be, from the first dayto the last night, an act so gloriousand so magnificent, on either way.For God, in giving Himself that man might beable to raise himself, gave even morethan if he had forgiven him in mercy.All other means would have been short, I say,of perfect justice, but that God's own Sonhumbled Himself to take on mortal clay.-Paradiso, Canto VII"
Author: Dante Alighieri

8. "Pale winter sun Is beatin' the ground Why'm I throwin' away The best thing that I've found My young heart's in tatters and I'm sureThat it will be a long time healing It's so hard to see what I'm doing this forWhen loneliness is all that I'm feeling"
Author: David Gray

9. "Cars they sound like waves that are breakingOn some distant shoreI gazed so hard into the great aching skyIt seemed that I, I wasn't here no moreThat my rushing blood was a riverMy eyes two starsMy blowing hair all a quiverA whispering field of grassThat murmurs as you passOh my darlin' KathleenThat whispers out your name"
Author: David Gray

10. "I have seen it over and over, the same sea, the same,slightly, indifferently swinging above the stones,icily free above the stones,above the stones and then the world.If you should dip your hand in,your wrist would ache immediately,your bones would begin to ache and your hand would burnas if the water were a transmutation of firethat feeds on stones and burns with a dark gray flame.If you tasted it, it would first taste bitter,then briny, then surely burn your tongue.It is like what we imagine knowledge to be:dark, salt, clear, moving, utterly free,drawn form the cold hard mouthof the world, derived from the rocky breastsforever, flowing and drawn, and sinceour knowledge is historical, flowing, and flown."
Author: Elizabeth Bishop

11. "They Lied"They lied, my friend. They injected their despair beneath your skin like a parasitic insect laying eggs in the body of another species.Nothing they said is true,everything about you is honorable. Every porethat opens and closes—a multitudealong the expanse of your body, thefollicles from which hair sproutsemerging again and again like spiders' flossspun from a limitless source.You wait, huddled. Or carry yourself fromplace to place like a burden. As ifyou would stash yourself, if you could,in a bus station locker, or somewhere smaller.You don't really hope, butyou can't give it up completely.Some stubborn nuggetis lodged like a bullet in bone.Though each breath stings with the coldsuck of it, you can know the truth.Every cell of your body vibrates with its own intelligence.Every atom is pure."
Author: Ellen Bass

12. "SmokeYou stand infront of me,pretending to be solid,but you are nothing morethan smoke and mirors. You said you'd never leave,that you would care for us forever,but now you claim youcannot stay?That you've been called away.When you go,who will i turn to when it allcrashes down?Tell me who.Then tell me,how I can believeanone again, if all your promises have been lies."
Author: Ellen Hopkins

13. "Dream BiggerYou think. Stop letting small minded peopledictate your futurewhen allthey really want is foryou to accomplishthe work of two, for minimumwage. Reach higher, orelseplan for retirementin a cardboard box, prayingglobal warming is morethan a catchphrase.And if thatfailsto be the case,hope freezing to deathis really as simpleas falling asleep,to the lullaby of teeth chatter.Dream biggerbefore you can't rememberhow to dream at all."
Author: Ellen Hopkins

14. "Growing up changes morethan playground gamesand body shapes."
Author: Emma Cameron

15. "The muse of music isn't just from Greek mythology, but living in people like the Beatles, Chuck Berry, Anita Baker, Aretha Franklin."
Author: Ernie Isley

16. "Absent one, how I miss you on this shorethat conjures you and fades if you're away"
Author: Eugenio Montale

17. "I know I'm not going to sing like Aretha Franklin or Elvis Presley or any of those people."
Author: George Thorogood

18. "The Prologue to TERRITORY LOST"Of cats' first disobedience, and the heightOf that forbidden tree whose doom'd ascentBrought man into the world to help us downAnd made us subject to his moods and whims,For though we may have knock'd an apple looseAs we were carried safely to the ground,We never said to eat th'accursed thing,But yet with him were exiled from our placeWith loss of hosts of sweet celestial miceAnd toothsome baby birds of paradise,And so were sent to stray across the earthAnd suffer dogs, until some greater CatRestore us, and regain the blissful yard,Sing, heavenly Mews, that on the ancient banksOf Egypt's sacred river didst inspireThat pharaoh who first taught the sons of menTo worship members of our feline breed:Instruct me in th'unfolding of my tale;Make fast my grasp upon my theme's dark threadsThat undistracted save by naps and snacksI may o'ercome our native reticenceAnd justify the ways of cats to men."
Author: Henry N. Beard

19. "Now it befell on summer night,upon a lawn where lingering lightyet lay and faded faint and grey,that Luthien danced while he did play…and this the moon now looked upon,uprisen slow, and round, and white,above the branches of the night.Then clearly thrilled her voice and rang;with sudden ecstasy she sanga song of nightingales she learnedand with her elvish magic turnedto such bewildering delightthe moon hung moveless in the night.And this it was that Beren heard,and this he saw, without a word,enchanted dumb, yet filled with fireof such wonder and desirethat all his mortal mind was dim;her magic bound and fettered him,and faint he leaned against a tree.Forwandered, wayworn, gaunt was he,his body sick and heart grown cold,grey in his hair, his youth turned old;for those that tread that lonely waya price of woe and anguish pay.And now his heart was healed and slainwith a new life and with new pain."
Author: J.R.R. Tolkien

20. "When I go down by the sandy shoreI can think of nothing I want moreThan to live by the booming seaAs the seagulls flutter round about meI can run about--when the tide is outWith the wind and the sand and the sea all aboutAnd the seagulls are swirling and diving for fishOh-to live by the sea is my only wish."
Author: Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

21. "My ultimate film role would be to play the queen of soul, Aretha Franklin."
Author: Jennifer Hudson

22. "Aretha Franklin's 'Let Me in Your Life' is one of the few recent R&B albums that places the emphasis entirely and deservedly on a voice. Many R&B producers have been making records on which the singer is outshined by the song, the arrangement and the sound."
Author: Jon Landau

23. "Atlantic's Jerry Wexler believes first-rate records are made by first-rate voices. He certainly has worked with enough of them: Clyde McPhatter, Joe Turner, La Vern Baker, Ray Charles, Otis Redding, Solomon Burke, Wilson Pickett and Aretha Franklin."
Author: Jon Landau

24. "In the end, the sign of Aretha Franklin's artistry is that she always leaves her mark - first, on the music, then on us."
Author: Jon Landau

25. "God has created nights well-populatedwith dreams, crowded with mirror images,so that man may feel that he is nothing morethan vain reflection. That's what frightens us."
Author: Jorge Luis Borges

26. "To pray you open your whole selfTo sky, to earth, to sun, to moonTo one whole voice that is youAnd know there is moreThat you can't see, can't hearCan't know except in momentsSteadly growing, and in languagesThat aren't always sound but otherCircles of motion.Like eagle that Sunday morningOver Salt River. Circled in blue skyIn wind, swept our hearts cleanWith sacred wings.We see you, see ourselves and knowThat we must take the utmost careAnd kindness in all things.Breathe in, knowing we are made ofAll this, and breathe, knowingWe are truly blessed because weWere born, and die soon within aTrue circle of motion,Like eagle rounding out the morningInside us.We pray that it will be doneIn beauty.In beauty."
Author: Joy Harjo

27. "I was a pop-music junkie. My parents were into Frank Sinatra and Doris Day. They weren't too excited when I had Aretha or the Stones pumping."
Author: Kara DioGuardi

28. "The Indian criminal justice system was a market like garbage, Abdul now understood. Innocence and guilt could be bought and sold like a kilo of polyurethane bags."
Author: Katherine Boo

29. "I'm dead. I can't be all right any morethan I can be not all right."
Author: Kendare Blake

30. "And God created every living creaturethat now moveth, and one was man. Mud as man alone could speak.God leaned close as mud as man sat up, looked around, and spoke.Man blinked. "What is the purpose of all this?" he asked politely."Everything must have a purpose?" asked God."Certainly," said man."Then I leave it to you to think of one for all this," said God. And Hewent away."
Author: Kurt Vonnegut

31. "I want to sing like Aretha Franklin. Before her I wanted the technical ability of Ella Fitzgerald."
Author: Lena Horne

32. "DEAR DI­ARYYou are greater than the BibleAnd the Con­fer­ence of the BirdsAnd the Up­an­ishadsAll put to­geth­erYou are more se­vereThan the Scrip­turesAnd Ham­mura­bi's CodeMore dan­ger­ous than Luther's pa­perNailed to the Cathe­dral doorYou are sweet­erThan the Song of SongsMight­ier by farThan the Epic of Gil­gameshAnd braverThan the Sagas of Ice­landI bow my head in grat­itudeTo the ones who give their livesTo keep the se­cretThe dai­ly se­cretUn­der lock and keyDear Di­aryI mean no dis­re­spectBut you are more sub­limeThan any Sa­cred TextSome­times just a listOf my eventsIs holi­er than the Bill of RightsAnd more in­tense"
Author: Leonard Cohen

33. "So, uh, I'm not really sorry about that, and I'm not reallygrateful for your butting in or, or anything, but I'm kind of awarethat I ought to be..."(...)Jeremy considered this. "Well, since it's you, I suppose it'sthe best I'm likely to get. Fair enough. Your non-apology isaccepted, and I'll attempt to treat your delicate condition lesslightly in the future."
Author: M. Chandler

34. "The voice of God, if you must know, is Aretha Franklin's."
Author: Marianne Faithfull

35. "Sadly, American teenagers are to a weightless vacuum as seat cushions are to polyurethane foam -"
Author: Marisha Pessl

36. "HummingbirdFlitting, dartingA restless questTo fuel a fireThat burns your breastSeeking sweetnessFor selfish gleeBringing giftsSo heedlesslyYour touch a triggerYou fire lifeIgniting beautyIn vibrant strifeTo equal youIn colors brightThey dazzle, dumbfoundAnd delightBut in tableauTheir beauty endsEnlivened onlyBy the windWhilst you withGenerous energyProve a lovelyVibrant PersephoneTheir season endsThose blooms of springAnd hummingbirdOn fragile wingToo soon I fearYou will expireSweetness smoldersConsumed in fire."
Author: Michael Sullivan

37. "The rule apparently is – once a social revolution takes place there'sno need to stoke the boiler. But I ask you: why, when this whole business started, should everybody suddenly start clumping up and down the marble staircase in dirty galoshes and felt boots? Why must we now keep our galoshes under lock and key? And put a soldier on guard over them to prevent them from being stolen? Why has the carpet been removed from the front staircase? Did Marx forbid people to keep their staircases carpeted? Did Karl Marx say anywherethat the front door of No. 2 Kalabukhov House in Prechistenka Street must be boarded up so that people have to go round and come in by the back door? What good does it do anybody? Why can't the proletarians leave their galoshes downstairs instead of dirtying the staircase?'‘But the proletarians don't have any galoshes, Philip Philipovich,' stammered the doctor." Chapter 3"
Author: Mikhail Bulgakov

38. "…Or he could choose life. At that pivotal moment, it occurred to him that with all hisschooling in theology he had, perhaps, missed the entire point of his studies, the verycrux of the gospel he had professed to believe. That the measure of a person's heart, thebarometer of good or evil, was nothing more than the extent of their willingness tochoose life over death. That the path of God was, simply, the path of life, abundant andeternal. And this is where he failed, for to choose life is to choose sorrow as well as joy,pain as well as pleasure. When Hunter had buried Rachel, he buried along with her hisheart, lest it might heal and feel and grow again. And in so doing he had chosen morethan death, he had chosen damnation itself, for damnation is nothing more than to stopa thing in its eternal progression. In that first flight from West Chester he had run notonly from the horror and pain of death but from life itself."
Author: Richard Paul Evans

39. "I was glad to be made awarethat "Veimke" (jeune fille au pair),is subject to natural law,and can be made fat,by such things as poor diet,and alcohol."
Author: Roman Payne

40. "Your body is wovenfrom the light of heaven.Are you awarethat its purity and swiftnessis the envy of angelsand its couragekeeps even devils away."
Author: Rumi

41. "I've come to take you with me even if I must drag you alongBut first I must steal your heartthen settle you in my soul.I've come as a springto lay beside your blossomsTo feel the glory of happinessand spread your flowers aroundI've come to show you offas the adornment in my houseand elevate you to the heavensas the prayers of those in love.I've come to take backthe kiss you once stoleEither return it with graceor i must take it by forceYou're my lifeYou're my soulPlease be my last prayerMy heart must hold you foreverFrom the lowly earthto the high human soulThere are a lot morethan a thousand stagesSince I've taken you alongfrom town to townno way will I abandonyou halfway down this roadThough you're in my handsThough i can throw you aroundlike a child and a ballI'll always need to chase after you"
Author: Rumi

42. "Hey, I'm like Aretha Franklin, I don't get no R -S -P -E -C -T around here!"
Author: Si Robertson

43. "Short is shortand Tall is TallYou are what you areThat is All!"
Author: Stephen Cosgrove

44. "Silver" is what I called girls who were natural beauties but who also smoothed on a layer of pretty from a jar. It wasn't just how they looked, it was how they were. The name came from a song my mother sang sometimes when she was getting dressed to go out somewhere special. She sang along with Aretha Franklin at the end: "Sail on, silver girl… Your time has come to shine. All your dreams are on their way."
Author: Tayari Jones

45. "Is this happening?" I'msurprised to hear my own voiceand decide right then and therethat I have a positively perfectMan Voice."
Author: Victoria Scott

46. "I had hardly begun to readI asked how can you ever be surethat what you write is reallyany good at all and he said you can'tyou can't you can never be sureyou die without knowingwhether anything you wrote was any goodif you have to be sure don't write"
Author: W.S. Merwin

47. "Being around people like Aretha Franklin and Gladys Knight, Dionne Warwick and Roberta Flack, all these greats, I was taught to listen and observe."
Author: Whitney Houston

48. "Hath Romeo slain himself? Say thou but ay,And that bare vowel ay shall poison moreThan the death-darting eye of cockatrice.I am not I,if there be such an ay,Or those eyes shut,that make thee answer ay:If he be slain say ay,or if not,no:Brief sounds,determine of my weal or woe."
Author: William Shakespeare

49. "Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother's deathThe memory be green, and that it us befittedTo bear our hearts in grief and our whole kingdomTo be contracted in one brow of woe,Yet so far hath discretion fought with natureThat we with wisest sorrow think on himTogether with remembrance of ourselves.Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen,Th' imperial jointress to this warlike state,Have we—as 'twere with a defeated joy,With an auspicious and a dropping eye,With mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage,In equal scale weighing delight and dole—Taken to wife. Nor have we herein barredYour better wisdoms, which have freely goneWith this affair along. For all, our thanks."
Author: William Shakespeare

50. "ORSINIO: Boy, thou hast said to me a thousand timesThou never shouldst love woman like to me.VIOLA:And all those sayings will I overswear;And those swearings keep as true in soulAs doth that orbèd continent the fireThat severs day from night."
Author: William Shakespeare

Retha Quotes Pictures