Quotes from Kirk Franklin

Sometimes I long for the parents I didn't have; that's a recurring nightmare.

Let's let people heal.

Christian music, gospel music, sometimes you'll fall asleep at church but music wakes you up, the song can speak to you in a way that's puts a fire in you. So if I'm working with a mainstream artist I'm trying to find a bigger purpose.

If we were not sinners, Jesus would not have had to come. If he didn't see us as sinners, he could have loved us without dying for us. He died for our sins. So if we're all sinners, that means everybody's in the pot together needing the same love, the same grace and the same forgiveness.

When we go through being rejected and abandoned like I did as a kid, you have a lot of fear and anxiety issues that you didn't even know that's what it was defined as. You live your life a lot of times living with the ghost of fear.

I am just always trying to pay attention to how to communicate things that may not always be the hot topic issues and ways they can be entertaining and engaging. That's what I think has always been my passion, even if it comes to the type of music that I do.

My heart really is about making sure that the conversation of Jesus Christ is something that can be a relevant conversation regardless of where culture finds itself.

People are hungry for something to remind them that life is bigger than the hell they're going through.

It makes you feel good when you do a song that, sonically, can fit right next to Drake. But our audience, they don't care. And it hurts that they don't care!

We've gotta be able to change that climate so that people feel more comfortable to be honest about their wounds.

My mama didn't want me; my daddy wasn't there. So there were a lot of insecurities and low self-esteem.

Most gospel music is very vertical. And there's nothing wrong with that - there's nothing wrong with, you know, 'God, we praise you,' and 'hallelujah.' Those songs are very important. But I also like to do songs that are very horizontal, that kind of fit within the fabric of people's everyday life.

Some people's healing and transformation may take years, and that does not mean that they're not in deep pursuit, you know?

While we fight and argue about abortion and sexual orientation, we apparently forgot one of the greatest sins that God continuously acknowledges He hates: pride.

When people are taught, especially at a young age, that they're created for something bigger, that gives them hope.

When you look at the decline of church attendance in America, or when you look at the decline of millennials that are not going to church in America, you want to have the conversation that a lot of times people are hit more with religion and rules and the systems than they are with the love of God and having a personal relationship with Christ.

I've worked with kids in a youth ministry in California.

Since Jesus is the truth, if you follow him, you must be truthful, no matter what the personal cost.

My main message is to preach God's word, pure and truthful. But also make it swaggalicious.

What saved me from the hood was Christian faith motivated by music.

Sometimes it feels very homophobic when people try to make their stance and their beliefs, and there's been some very painful, ugly things that have been said... that not have always been in the essence of a heart for Christ.

I trust that if God gives me music for someone else, that's what He wants that person to have. I have to trust that that's what they're supposed to do and that's the music that should specifically be released for them and their ministry, for their career and for their audience.

The kids, they want to come to spirituality. But we have to meet them where we are.

My job on Earth, the reason why Kirk is created, is to make God famous. I just want God to be well-known. And I think it's created a dialogue - I think it's opened up conversation, and people have started to talk about what religion is to them.