xy

“Watch out where the huskies go,
and don't you eat that yellow snow.”

Frank Zappa (1940–1993) American musician, songwriter, composer, and record and film producer

“Let's not be too rough on our own ignorance; it's what makes America great!”

Frank Zappa (1940–1993) American musician, songwriter, composer, and record and film producer

“After all, he wrote this book here, and in the book it says he made us all to be just like him! So if we're dumb, then God is dumb — and maybe even a little ugly on the side.”

Frank Zappa (1940–1993) American musician, songwriter, composer, and record and film producer

“There are three things that smell of fish. One of them is fish. The other two are growing on you!”

Frank Zappa (1940–1993) American musician, songwriter, composer, and record and film producer

“You're an asshole! You're an asshole!
That's right!
You're an asshole! You're an asshole!
Yes yes!”

Frank Zappa (1940–1993) American musician, songwriter, composer, and record and film producer

“My solos are speech-influenced rhythmically; and harmonically, they're either pentatonic, or poly-scale oriented. And there's the mixolydian mode that I also use a lot…But I'm more interested in melodic things I think the biggest challenge when you go to play a solo is trying to invent a melody on the spot.”

Frank Zappa (1940–1993) American musician, songwriter, composer, and record and film producer

“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.”

Frank Zappa (1940–1993) American musician, songwriter, composer, and record and film producer

“Do you think you are protecting somebody by taking away seven words?”

Frank Zappa (1940–1993) American musician, songwriter, composer, and record and film producer

“You know, people are basically shitty. It’s when they prove it over and over again that it gets obnoxious.”

Frank Zappa (1940–1993) American musician, songwriter, composer, and record and film producer

“So much gets lost in the translation. Even if you sat there listening to it with a microscope, there’s no way you’re gonna find out what it means.”

Frank Zappa (1940–1993) American musician, songwriter, composer, and record and film producer

“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 (1940–1993) American musician, songwriter, composer, and record and film producer

“I think the music of the Fifties is really good. I suspect it’s much better musically than much of what’s available now. Not in terms of production, but in terms of content. One good believable song about some guy’s girlfriend and how they broke up — a sincere one — is better than twenty albums of English rock that’s ever been produced.”

Frank Zappa (1940–1993) American musician, songwriter, composer, and record and film producer

“The things that were happening in 1955 were cosmic … in terms of music history.”

Frank Zappa (1940–1993) American musician, songwriter, composer, and record and film producer

“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 (1940–1993) American musician, songwriter, composer, and record and film producer

“I'm probably more famous for sitting on the toilet than for anything else that I do.”

Frank Zappa (1940–1993) American musician, songwriter, composer, and record and film producer

“Scientology, how about that? You hold on to the tin cans and then this guy asks you a bunch of questions, and if you pay enough money you get to join the master race. How's that for a religion?”

Frank Zappa (1940–1993) American musician, songwriter, composer, and record and film producer

“Gail has said in interviews that one of the things that makes our relationship work is the fact that we hardly ever get to talk to each other.”

Frank Zappa (1940–1993) American musician, songwriter, composer, and record and film producer

“Anyone who is disturbed by the idea of newts in a nightclub is potentially dangerous.”

Frank Zappa (1940–1993) American musician, songwriter, composer, and record and film producer

“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 (1940–1993) American musician, songwriter, composer, and record and film producer