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Frank Zappa

Frank Zappa Quotes

Musician

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Famous Frank Zappa Quotes

“The creation and destruction of harmonic and 'statistical' tensions is essential to the maintenance of compositional drama. Any composition (or improvisation) which remains consonant and 'regular' throughout is, for me, equivalent to watching a movie with only 'good guys' in it, or eating cottage cheese.”

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“The Ultimate Rule ought to be: 'If it sounds GOOD to you, it's bitchin'; if it sounds BAD to YOU, it's shitty. The more your musical experience, the easier it is to define for yourself what you like and what you don't like. American radio listeners, raised on a diet of _____ (fill in the blank), have experienced a musical universe so small they cannot begin to know what they like.”

IfsKnowsUniverseSoundOughtEasierUltimateRaisedMusicalRadioDietsBlankListenersMusical ExperienceFill In The Blank
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“The only difference between a cult and a religion is the amount of real estate they own” “Stupidity has a certain charm - ignorance does not” “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” “It would be easier to pay off the national debt overnight than to neutralize the long-range effects of our national stupidity” “Communism doesn't work because people like to own stuff.”

PeopleWantChildrenLongDoeRealWould BeCertainStuffDifferencesChurchPayAdviceEffectsIgnoranceAmountEasierHealthyRaisesDebtStupidityCommunismRangeCharmFar AwayEstatesCultBest AdviceNational DebtHealthy Children
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“[Lighting a cigarette] 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.”

IfsKnowsWayFirstsWellsKindHas BeensWholeAsksMoralGoneDemocracyIssuesRightsPleaseConcernedHarmLifestyleSmokeAsk MeSmokingMinoritiesMentalityCigaretteLegislationLightingResentMoral IssuesHealth Issues
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“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.”

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“You can't be a real country unless you have a beer.”

RealCountryDrinkDrinkingAlcoholDrunkBeerHopsNuclear WeaponsAlcoholismDrankWhiskeyAirlineProhibitionCocktailsDrinking AlcoholPubsDrinkersBoozeFunny DrinkingBeer DrinkingDrinking BeerGreat DrinkingFunny AlcoholAlcohol DrinkingDrinking FunnyGreat AlcoholBrewingFunny BeerBrewing BeerDrinking WhiskeyFunny Beer DrinkingGreat BeerWhiskey DrinkingBeer DrinkersCraft BeerLiquor FunnyBeer LoveCocktail DrinksShots DrinkingBrewersBeer And WineDon't Drink AlcoholBeer And LoveIrish BeerShort BeerShort DrinkingCollege DrinkingDrunk ManFunny BarDrinking With Friends
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“If you want to get together in any exclusive situation and have people love you, fine - but to hang all this desperate sociology on the idea of The Cloud-Guy who has The Big Book, who knows if you've been bad or good - and CARES about any of it - to hang it all on that, folks, is the chimpanzee part of the brain working.”

PeopleIfsKnowsWantBookIdeasBigsCareTogetherGuyBrainSituationLove YouFineAtheistCloudsFolksDesperateSociologyExclusiveGet TogetherChimpanzeesBig Book
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“There's no reason to assume that my idea of what's better would really be better. I resent it when other people try to inflict their ideas of betterness on me. I don't think they know. And I can't see any authority on the horizon that's got any answers that seem worthwhile. Most of the things that are suggested are probably detrimental to your mental health.”

PeopleThinkingKnowsTryingI CanIdeasReasonSeemsAnswersAuthorityMental HealthAssumingNo ReasonHorizonWorthwhileCynicismIdealismResentDetrimental
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“Schools train people to be ignorant, with style. They give you the equipment that you need to be a functional ignoramus. American schools* do not equip you to deal with things like logic; they don't give you the criteria by which to judge between good and bad in any medium or format; and they prepare you to be a usable victim for military-industrial complex that needs manpower.”

PeopleNeedsGivingSchoolDealsMilitaryStyleJudgingLogicVictimTrainComplexesIgnorantMediumsEquipmentGood And BadCriteriaFormatMilitary Industrial ComplexManpower
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“As long as you're just smart enough to do a job and just dumb enough to swallow what they feed you, you're gonna be alright. But if you go beyond that then you're gonna have these grave doubts that give you stomach problems, headachesmake you want to go out and do something else. So, I believe that schools mechanically and very specifically try and breed out any hint of creative thought in the kids that are coming out.”

IfsWantGivingTryingBelieveLongEnoughProblemKidsSchoolJobsI BelieveCreativeDoubtSmartGravesDumbStomachComing OutHintsAlrightCreative Thought
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