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.
Aretha FranklinRead
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.
Interpretation
This quote expresses gratitude for the natural talent of singing and the joy it brings to the individual.
Aretha Franklin emphasizes the importance of recognizing and utilizing one's innate talents as a gift from a higher power. By embracing her ability to sing, she finds fulfillment and happiness, suggesting that true contentment comes from leveraging our unique skills to their fullest potential.
In practice
In a motivational speech about pursuing one's passions.
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.
Trying to grow up is hurting. You make mistakes. You try to learn from them, and when you don't, it hurts even more.
My mentor was Clara Ward of the famous Ward gospel singers of Philadelphia. And my dad was my coach. He coached me. And just my natural love for music is what drove me.
It really is an honor if I can be inspirational to a younger singer or person. It means I've done my job.
In terms of helping people understand and know each other a little better, music is universal - universal and transporting.
Everybody wants respect. In their own way, three-year-olds would like respect, and acknowledgment, in their terms.
Everything great in the world comes from neurotics. They alone have founded our religions and composed our masterpieces.
I knew from the age of five what I wanted to do. The one thing I could do was draw. I couldn't draw that much better than some of the other kids, but I cared more and I wanted it badly.
Photography is a magic thing. A thing that has mysterious odors, a little strange and frightening, something one quickly grows to love.
Acting is not about being someone different. It's finding the similarity in what is apparently different, then finding myself in there.
I wonder if I don't give too much of myself to writing: I am always half where I am; the other half is feeding the furnace, kick-starting the heat of creativity. I am making love with someone but at the same time I'm noticing how this graceful hand across my belly might just fit in with the memory of lilacs in Albuquerque in 1974.
Very quickly a painting is turned into a facsimile of itself when one becomes so familiar with with it that one recognizes it without looking at it.
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