Frank Vincent Zappa was born on the 21st of December, 1940 in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. He was an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, composer, and bandleader. Frank Zappa also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed album covers. He is considered one of the most innovative and stylistically diverse rock musicians of his era.
Frank Zappa was a highly productive and prolific artist, he composed rock, pop, jazz, jazz fusion, orchestral and musique concrète works. In 1995, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and several other honors. Frank Zappa died on December 4, 1993 in Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles, California, United States.
Below you will find a collection of famous Frank Zappa quotes and sayings.
70 Frank Zappa Quotes About Life, Freedom & Government
“Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible.” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“A mind is like a parachute. It doesn’t work if it is not open.” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“Interviewer: ‘So Frank, you have long hair. Does that make you a woman?’
Frank Zappa: ‘You have a wooden leg. Does that make you a table?” ― Frank Zappa Quote
Frank Zappa: ‘You have a wooden leg. Does that make you a table?” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it’s profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater.” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“Music is the only religion that delivers the goods.” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“Take the Kama Sutra. How many people died from the Kama Sutra as opposed to the Bible? Who wins?” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“You can’t be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline – it helps if you have some kind of football team, or some nuclear weapons, but in the very least you need a beer.” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“Modern Americans behave as if intelligence were some sort of hideous deformity.” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“I like to watch the news, because I don’t like people very much and when you watch the news … if you ever had an idea that people were really terrible, you could watch the news and know that you’re right.” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“I wrote a song about dental floss but did anyone’s teeth get cleaner?” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“I think it’s really tragic when people get serious about stuff. It’s such an absurdity to take anything really seriously … I make an honest attempt not to take anything seriously: I worked that attitude out about the time I was eighteen, I mean, what does it all mean when you get right down to it, what’s the story here? Being alive is so weird.” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“Politics is the entertainment branch of industry.” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“The rock and roll business is pretty absurd, but the world of serious music is much worse.” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“The bassoon is one of my favorite instruments. It has a medieval aroma, like the days when everything used to sound like that. Some people crave baseball…I find this unfathomable, but I can easily understand why a person could get excited about playing the bassoon.” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“Suddenly, books are arriving every day! “So many books, so little time.” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“behind each breakaway movement is a breakaway demagogue who will set up his breakaway demagogue government.” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“Music without the ebb and flow would be like “watching a film with only good guys in it”.” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“Their stupidity does not amaze me, its when they’re smart that amazes me. It’s baffling whenever you find someone who’s smart — incredible. Soon you’ll have zoos for such things.” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“I think that if you use the so-called “strong words” you’ll get your point across faster and you can save a lot of beating around the bush. Why are people so afraid of words? Sometimes the dumbest thing that gets said makes the point for you.” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“Well, in this world of basic stereotyping, give a guy a big nose and some weird hair and he is capable of anything.” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“I think that if a person doesn’t feel cynical then they’re out of phase with the 20th century. Being cynical is the only way to deal with modern civilization — you can’t just swallow it whole.” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“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 Quote
“Everybody believes in something and everybody, by virtue of the fact that they believe in something, uses that something to support their own existence.” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“Most people don’t bother about their friends in the vegetable kingdom.” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“There are more love songs than anything else. If songs could make you do something we’d all love one another.” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“The price of meat has just gone up and your old lady has just gone down.” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“Nobody looks good with brown lipstick on.” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“The most important thing in art is The Frame. For painting: literally; for other arts: figuratively– because, without this humble appliance, you can’t know where The Art stops and The Real World begins. You have to put a ‘box’ around it because otherwise, what is that shit on the wall?” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“A true Zen saying: “Nothing is what I want.” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“I think it is good that books still exist, but they do make me sleepy.” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“The most important thing to do in your life is to not interfere with somebody else’s life.” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“Tobacco is my favorite vegetable.” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“Government is the Entertainment division of the military-industrial complex.” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“There’s a big difference between kneeling down and bending over.” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“It’s better to have something to remember than anything to regret.”― Frank Zappa Quote
“A drug is not bad. A drug is a chemical compound. The problem comes in when people who take drugs treat them like a license to behave like an as*shole.” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“I never set out to be weird. It was always other people who called me weird.” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“If you end up with a boring miserable life because you listened to your mom, your dad, your teacher, your priest, or some guy on television telling you how to do your shit, then you deserve it.” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid.” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“There is more stupidity than hydrogen in the universe, and it has a longer shelf life.” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“My best advice to anyone who wants to raise a happy, mentally healthy child is: Keep him or her as far away from a church as you can.” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“Communism doesn’t work because people like to own stuff.” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“All the good music has already been written by people with wigs and stuff.” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe.” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“Anybody who wants religion is welcome to it, as far as I’m concerned–I support your right to enjoy it. However, I would appreciate it if you exhibited more respect for the rights of those people who do not wish to share your dogma, rapture, or necrodestination.” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“The more boring a child is, the more the parents, when showing off the child, receive adulation for being good parents — because they have a tame child-creature in their house.” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“A wise man once said, never discuss philosophy or politics in a disco environment.” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“If your children ever find out how lame you really are, they’ll murder you in your sleep.” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“Don’t eat the yellow snow.” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“lf you’re going to deal with reality, you’re going to have to make one big discovery: Reality is something that belongs to you as an individual. If you wanna grow up, which most people don’t, the thing to do is take responsibility for your own reality and deal with it on your own terms. Don’t expect that because you pay some money to somebody else or take a pledge or join a club or run down the street or wear a special bunch of clothes or play a certain sport or even drink Perrier water, it’s going to take care of everything for you.” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“The more you can escape from how horrible things really are, the less it’s going to bother you…and then, the worse things get.” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“Books Are Good For Lots Of Uses, Not For Dropping In The Toilet.” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“Love lyrics have contributed to the general aura of bad mental health in America.” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“It isn’t necessary to imagine the world ending in fire or ice — there are two other possibilities: one is paperwork, and the other is nostalgia.” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“I feel a lot of people don’t know what high school is – including those who are in it. My material is provided to give them some perspective. People are stupid. They never stop to question things. They just accept. Can you imagine a nation who never questions the validity of cheerleaders and pom-poms?” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“All your children are poor unfortunate victims of systems beyond their control” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“For the record, folks; I never took a shit on stage and the closest I ever came to eating shit anywhere was at a Holiday Inn buffet in Fayetteville, North Carolina, in 1973.” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“One size does not fit all.” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“A composer is a guy who goes around forcing his will on unsuspecting air molecules, often with the assistance of unsuspecting musicians.” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“Well, I’m not here to impinge on anybody else’s lifestyle. If I’m in a place where I know I’m going to harm somebody’s health or somebody asks me to please not smoke, I just go outside and smoke. But I do resent the way the nonsmoking mentality has been imposed on the smoking minority. Because, first of all, in a democracy, minorities do have rights. And, second, the whole pitch about smoking has gone from being a health issue to a moral issue, and when they reduce something to a moral issue, it has no place in any kind of legislation, as far as I’m concerned.” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“Drugs will turn you into your parents.” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“Republicans stand for raw, unbridled evil and greed and ignorance smothered in balloons and ribbons.” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“May your shit come to life and kiss you on the face.” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“The essence of Christianity is told us in the Garden of Eden history. The fruit that was forbidden was on the tree of knowledge. The subtext is, ‘All the suffering you have is because you wanted to find out what was going on. You could be in the Garden of Eden if you had just kept your fucking mouth shut and hadn’t asked any questions.” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“There is no such thing as a dirty word. Nor is there a word so powerful, that it’s going to send the listener to the lake of fire upon hearing it.” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“The United States is a nation of laws, badly written and randomly enforced.” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“Art is making something out of nothing, and selling it.” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“Drop out of school before your mind rots from exposure to our mediocre educational system. Forget about the Senior Prom and go to the library and educate yourself if you’ve got any guts. Some of you like Pep rallies and plastic robots who tell you what to read.” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“Definition of rock journalism: People who can’t write, doing interviews with people who can’t think, in order to prepare articles for people who can’t read.” ― Frank Zappa Quote
“If you want to get laid, go to college. If you want an education, go to the library.” ― Frank Zappa Quote