94 quotes
Music is the only religion that delivers the goods.
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.
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.
The Dub Room Special (1982)
The rock and roll business is pretty absurd, but the world of serious music is much worse.
A composer's job involves the decoration of fragments of time. Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid.
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.
Classical musicians go to the conservatories, rock´n roll musicians go to the garages.
Remember there's a big difference between kneeling down and bending over.
You Are What You Is (1981)
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.
The Real Frank Zappa Book (1989)
Jazz is not dead, it just smells funny.
Roxy & Elsewhere (1974)
The first thing you have to do if you want to raise nice kids, is you have to talk to them like they are people instead of talking to them like they're property.
Appearance on The Howard Stern Show (1987)
Just because somebody hears something you say, or reads something that you write, doesn’t mean you’ve reached them.
Oui interview (1979)
I'm probably more famous for sitting on the toilet than for anything else that I do.
I don't give a fuck if they remember me at all.
Certification from one source or another seems to be the most important thing to people all over the world. … People are just waiting around to get certified.
On a personal level, Freaking Out is a process whereby an individual casts off outmoded and restricting standards of thinking, dress, and social etiquette in order to express creatively his relationship to his immediate environment and the social structure as a whole.
No change in musical style will survive unless it is accompanied by a change in clothing style. Rock is to dress up to.
//Real Frank Zappa Book (1989)
The things that were happening in 1955 were cosmic … in terms of music history.
Being interviewed is one of the most abnormal things that you can do to somebody else. It's two steps removed from the Inquisition.
Everything on this planet has something to do with music. Music functions in the realm of sculptured air.
Oui interview (1979)