The voice of God, if you must know, is Aretha Franklin's.
No president ever had more power than [Franklin Delano] Roosevelt.
You know who was a hero? Franklin Roosevelt.
What Franklin Roosevelt did, which really offended them, was he strengthened the labor unions - made it possible for them to strike. The oligarchs were furious because the working class was not supposed to have any power at all.
The people I really most admire are Robert Kennedy and Franklin Roosevelt. If you know someone, it is very hard to revere them.
In the end, the sign of Aretha Franklin's artistry is that she always leaves her mark - first, on the music, then on us.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt and J.F Kennedy were Presidents in very different times.
Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, others, knew how to lead. They knew how to ask the American people for the right things.
Effective leaders at a high level tend to be skilled actors. Franklin Roosevelt is said to have to quipped, on being introduced to Orson Welles, that they were the two greatest actors in America. The story may be apocryphal, but the message rings true.
[John] Adams never hid his jealousy and resentment of the other Founders, especially Benjamin Franklin.
I know I'm not going to sing like Aretha Franklin or Elvis Presley or any of those people.
My prose style at this time was a stomach-twisting blend of the Bible, Carl Sandburg, H.L. Mencken, Jeffrey Farnol, Christopher Morley, Samuel Pepys, and Franklin Pierce Adams imitating Samuel Pepys. I was quite apt to throw in a "bless the mark" at any spot, and to begin a sentence with "Lord" comma.
Historically, when Americans don't know what to do next, they go to Paris. Benjamin Franklin is like: 'What am I going to do now? I'll go to Paris!'
It was really wonderful playing with Aretha [ Franklin]. I knew that she knew what she was doing, so all I had to do was sit in the background and vamp a little bit.
There are bursts of things like Abraham Lincoln or Ronald Reagan or Franklin Delano Roosevelt or same-sex marriage that change very much what we thought we were all about.
