Frank Zappa Quotes

I find it amusing on one level, poignant on another, when people try to get recognition from an outside source. It's sad.

We think of ourselves as our titles or our jobs or our position in a family. We depend on being praised by others. But something happens when that praise is undermined.

As far as more recognition goes, I am happy with the amount of love and respect I have received from other artists and the public. Of course, I would love more, and think I deserve it.

It's cool to have critical success because it's always nice for your peers to say, 'Good job.' But who cares about them?

Success is not two cars or a swimming pool. It's the approval of your peers.

Why do people need awards? Don't you know your value and your worth? I don't need anybody's award or acceptance.

I think there are certain people that you'll always want to impress no matter how much success you have.

In England right now you're not good enough until you get validated.

You want the industry to finally admit that you're good. But I'm still good without their admission.

I'm not interested in awards. I never have been. I don't think they are important. Don't get me wrong, if somebody gives me a prize, I thank them as gratefully as I know how, because it's very nice to be given a prize. But I don't think that awards ought to be sought. It encourages our business to be competitive in absolutely the wrong way. We're not sportsmen; we're not trying to come in first.

Maybe that's why there's an insecurity sometimes in acting, because it's not like there's a correlation between hard work and how people receive you.

A man who does not love praise is not a full man.

I manage to think twice about everything / Why will they like me as they do / Or not as they do / Why will they praise me as they do / Or praise me not not as they do.

I think one of the reasons I pushed myself so hard and worked so hard is because I never felt special.

The fact that I didn't finish school left me with a lifelong need to prove that I'm smart, prove it to myself, maybe to the world. I [also] needed to be - not the center of attention - but I needed to be able to attract attention when I wanted it, through my stunts and my fooling around physically with faces or postures or voices I would do. Those things are important elements in the drive behind all of this [my career].

Being considered beautiful at a young age sends confusing signals. You think people only like you because of your beauty.

Don't accept the applause of men, and you won't be destroyed by their criticism.

I think my greatest insecurity would just be standing in the middle of the room and having everyone watching me thinking that's what I want. If I am interesting to you because of who I am, then that's incredible. But if I'm interesting to you only because of what I am, then let's not bother, you know?

That's the problem. Anyone can go and buy a restaurant. I want to be at that f - ing dinner party where they say, "Hey, Bill, your food's great. You should buy yourself a restaurant." That's not right. Taking it less personally.

I'm glad I got a record contract, because all of a sudden everything you were doing before that made you a stupid person now makes you a smart person.

If you are hoping to find your self-worth and fulfillment in other peoples' opinion of your writing, you will never find it.

I always thought that if I ever got good reviews I'd be happy. It's so empty. It's never what I wanted, ever. All I wanted was just what everybody else wants - to be loved.

The whole concept of awards is silly. I cannot abide by the judgment of other people, because if you accept it when they say you deserve an award, then you have to accept it when they say you don't.

I take it personal when people don't double me. It's against my religion not to double me. It upsets me. It makes me think they're saying to themselves I don't have it anymore.

I don't need to get any validation by someone else who sits next to me in first class. If you think a seat in first class makes you a star, then you're not one.