Frank Zappa was an avant-garde American composer, electric guitar maestro and cultural critic, challenging both political norms and counter-culture.
Founder of the Mothers of Invention, Zappa produced over 60 albums, traversing genres from rock and jazz to orchestral music.
Known for his sharp wit, he was an unapologetic individualist, even testifying against music censorship in Washington, D.C.
Despite facing bans, he eventually gained recognition as a serious composer, celebrated posthumously at venues once off-limits to him. Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995, Zappa’s eclectic legacy lives on, documented in several films.
I have picked the top quotes by Frank Zappa.
Best Frank Zappa Quotes
Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible. ~ Frank Zappa.
There is more stupidity than hydrogen in the universe, and it has a longer shelf life. ~ Frank Zappa.
Jazz isn’t dead. It just smells funny. ~ Frank Zappa.
Call any vegetable and the chances are good that the vegetable will respond to you. ~ Frank Zappa.
The rock and roll business is pretty absurd, but the world of serious music is much worse. ~ Frank Zappa.
If your children ever find out how lame you really are, they’ll murder you in your sleep. ~ Frank Zappa.
Don’t mind your make-up, you’d better make your mind up. ~ Frank Zappa.
Don’t forget to vote. ~ Frank Zappa.
Moving to Montana soon, gonna be a dental floss tycoon. ~ Frank Zappa.
The universe consists of 5% protons, 5% neutrons, 5% electrons and 85% morons. ~ Frank Zappa.
The crux of the biscuit is: If it entertains you, fine. Enjoy it. If it doesn’t, then blow it out your ass. I do it to amuse myself. If I like it, I release it. If somebody else likes it, that’s a bonus. ~ Frank Zappa.
If you want to get laid, go to college. If you want an education, go to the library. ~ Frank Zappa.
I’m probably more famous for sitting on the toilet than for anything else that I do. ~ Frank Zappa.
Ram it up your poop chute. ~ Frank Zappa.
Famous Frank Zappa Quotes
I never set out to be weird. It was always other people who called me weird. ~ Frank Zappa.
Shut Up and Play your Guitar. ~ Frank Zappa.
Take the Kama Sutra. How many people died from the Kama Sutra as opposed to the Bible? Who wins? ~ Frank Zappa.
The whole Universe is a large joke. Everything in the Universe are just subdivisions of this joke. So why take anything too serious. ~ Frank Zappa.
Beware of the fish people, they are the true enemy. ~ Frank Zappa.
Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid. ~ Frank Zappa.
She is an office girl, her name is Betty. Her favorite group is Helen Reddy. ~ Frank Zappa.
All the good music has already been written by people with wigs and stuff. ~ Frank Zappa.
I don’t want to spend my life explaining myself. You either get it, or you don’t. ~ Frank Zappa.
Why do you necessarily have to be wrong just because a few million people think you are? ~ Frank Zappa.
Mr. Gorbachev has apparently stumbled onto one of the best-kept secrets in recent Soviet history: Communism doesn’t work. ~ Frank Zappa.
Bad facts make bad law, and people who write bad laws are in my opinion more dangerous than songwriters who celebrate sexuality. ~ Frank Zappa.
Top Frank Zappa Quotes
The crux of the biscuit is the apostrophe! ~ Frank Zappa.
It gets harder the more you know. Because the more you find out the uglier everything seems. ~ Frank Zappa.
Stupidity has a certain charm – ignorance does not. ~ Frank Zappa.
I’m not black, but there’s a whole lot of times I wish I could say I’m not white. ~ Frank Zappa.
The disgusting stink of a too-loud electric guitar; now that’s my idea of a good time. ~ Frank Zappa.
Anything played wrong twice in a row is the beginning of an arrangement. ~ Frank Zappa.
Information doesn’t kill you. ~ Frank Zappa.
Information is not knowledge. Knowledge is not wisdom. Wisdom is not truth. Truth is not beauty. Beauty is not love. Love is not music. Music is THE BEST. ~ Frank Zappa.
The most important thing to do in your life is to not interfere with somebody else’s life. ~ Frank Zappa.
My balls feel like a pair of maracas. ~ Frank Zappa.
A mind is like a parachute. It doesn’t work if it is not open. ~ Frank Zappa.
There is no hell. There is only France. ~ Frank Zappa.
Popular Frank Zappa Quotes
The computer can’t tell you the emotional story. It can give you the exact mathematical design, but what’s missing is the eyebrows. ~ Frank Zappa.
There are only two things to remember. Number one…Don’t Stop, and number two…Keep Going! ~ Frank Zappa.
Don’t eat the yellow snow. ~ Frank Zappa.
Tobacco is my favorite vegetable. ~ Frank Zappa.
Music is the only religion that delivers the goods. ~ Frank Zappa.
I write what I like to write. Those who like to listen to it, listen to it. And the ones who don’t, watch football and drink beer, jog, go to discos and so forth. I never claimed to be a man for all seasons. ~ Frank Zappa.
Government is the Entertainment division of the military-industrial complex. ~ Frank Zappa.
Maybe you should stay with your mama, you’re kind of stupid and ugly, too. ~ Frank Zappa.
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.
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.
This is a stupid song and that’s the way I like it. ~ Frank Zappa.
Great Frank Zappa Quotes
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. ~ Frank Zappa.
To me absurdity is the only reality. ~ Frank Zappa.
The last election just laid the foundation of the next 500 years of Dark Ages. ~ Frank Zappa.
One of my favorite philosophical tenets is that people will agree with you only if they already agree with you. You do not change people’s minds. ~ Frank Zappa.
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.
Whatever you have to do to have a good time, let’s get on with it, so long as it doesn’t cause a murder. ~ Frank Zappa.
Drugs will turn you into your parents. ~ Frank Zappa.
One size does not fit all. ~ Frank Zappa.
Just because somebody hears something you say, or reads something that you write, doesn’t mean you’ve reached them. ~ Frank Zappa.
Love of my life, I love you so. Love of my life, don’t ever go. ~ Frank Zappa.
Powerful Frank Zappa Quotes
There will never be a nuclear war; there’s too much real estate involved. ~ Frank Zappa.
Writing about music is like dancing about architecture. ~ Frank Zappa.
The only difference between a cult and a religion is the amount of real estate they own. ~ 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. ~ Frank Zappa.
I searched for years I found no love. I’m sure that love will never be a product of plasticity. ~ Frank Zappa.
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.
No change in musical style will survive unless it is accompanied by a change in clothing style. Rock is to dress up to. ~ Frank Zappa.
Music is the most physically inspiring of all the arts. ~ Frank Zappa.
I enjoy irritating the people who enjoy being irritated. ~ Frank Zappa.
Wise Frank Zappa Quotes
There are more love songs than anything else. If songs could make you do something we’d all love one another. ~ Frank Zappa.
Rock music was never written for or performed for conservative tastes. ~ Frank Zappa.
Reality is what it is, not what you want it to be. ~ Frank Zappa.
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.
Art is making something out of nothing, and selling it. ~ Frank Zappa.
The United States is a nation of laws: badly written and randomly enforced. ~ Frank Zappa.
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.
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 afraid of words? Sometimes the dumbest thing that gets said makes the point for you. ~ Frank Zappa.
Inspiring Frank Zappa Quotes
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. ~ Frank Zappa.
It’s better to have something to remember than anything to regret. ~ Frank Zappa.
Communism doesn’t work because people like to own stuff. ~ Frank Zappa.
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. ~ Frank Zappa.
The most abundant element in the Universe is stupidity. ~ Frank Zappa.
So these were the 85 top Frank Zappa quotes and sayings on life, music, success and politics.
If you like these quotes and sayings, then you can also read my other posts on Frank A. Clark quotes and Francis of Assisi quotes.
