Frank Zappa Quotes

114 Sourced Quotes

Rock journalism is people who can't write, interviewing people who can't talk, in order to provide articles for people who can't read.

Frank Zappa
Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible.

Frank Zappa
The United States is a nation of laws: badly written and randomly enforced.

Frank Zappa
You know, people are basically shitty. It's when they prove it over and over again that it gets obnoxious.

Frank Zappa
Look here brother, who you jivin' with that cosmik debris?

Frank Zappa
Do we really want to know how Michael Jackson makes his music? No. We want to understand why he needs the bones of the Elephant Man -- and, until he tells us, it doesn't make too much difference whether or not he really is ''bad.

Frank Zappa
The richest people in the world aren't particularly smart or happy. And the happiest people in the world aren't particularly smart or rich.… That leaves me making music. But we can't talk about that.

Frank Zappa
The establishment of a rating system, voluntary or otherwise, opens the door to an endless parade of moral quality control programs based on things certain Christians do not like. What if the next bunch of Washington wives demands a large yellow J on all material written or performed by Jews, in order to save helpless children from exposure to concealed Zionist doctrine?

Frank Zappa
It's better to have something to remember than anything to regret.

Frank Zappa
Fact of the matter is, there is no hip world, there is no straight world. There's a world, you see which has people in it who believe a variety of different things. Everybody believes in something and everybody, by virtue of the fact that they believe in something, use that something to support their own existence.

Frank Zappa
Since I didn't have any kind of formal training, it didn't make any difference to me if I was listening to Lightnin' Slim, or a vocal group called the Jewels..., or Webern, or Varèse, or Stravinsky. To me it was all good music.

Frank Zappa
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Politics Is the Entertainment Branch of Industry. C-SPAN's coverage of governmental proceedings is wonderful. Caution! Buffoons on the Hill! Wallowing in blabber and spew, regiments of ex-lawyers and used-car salesmen attempt to distract us from the naughty little surprises served up by deregulated corporate America.

Frank Zappa
People have preposterous ideas about what those songs are about and what the music means. They start spouting all this shit that's so far off the mark, it's revolting. But if that's how they derive pleasure, who am I to deprive them of it? Let 'em enjoy it. It's there for their edification. But total comprehension is out of the question.

Frank Zappa
Music is the only religion that delivers the goods on earth.

Frank Zappa
All the old history was written for the amusement of the ruling classes. The lower classes couldn't read, and their rulers didn't care about remembering what happened to them.

Frank Zappa
Certification from one source or another seems to be the most important thing to people all over the world. A piece of paper from a school that says you're smart, a pat on the head from your parents that says you're good or some reinforcement from your peers that makes you think what you're doing is worthwhile. People are just waiting around to get certified.

Frank Zappa
Why should I smile when I'm sitting here with you?

Frank Zappa
The most important thing to do in your life is to not interfere with somebody else's life.

Frank Zappa
Tell you what — Kiss my ass! How do you like that…?

Frank Zappa
The sad thing about the Sixties was the weak-mindedness of the so-called radicals and the way that they managed to get co-opted. I think one of the things that helped that happen was LSD. It's the only chemical known to mankind that will convert a hippy to a yuppie.

Frank Zappa