Quotes from Frank Ocean

Smile, it's easier than explaning why you're sad

I like the anonymity that directors can have about their films.

How we experience memory sometimes, it's not linear. We're not telling the stories to ourselves. We know the story; we're just seeing it in flashes overlaid.

My grandfather was smart and had a whole lot of pride. He didn't speak a terrible amount, but you could tell there was a ton on his mind - like a quiet acceptance of how life had turned out.

I don't fear anybody... at all.

I need to know how many records I've sold, how many album equivalents from streaming, which territories are playing my music more than others, because it helps me in conversations about where we're gonna be playing shows or where I might open a retail location, like a pop-up store or something.

Work hard in Silence, let success make the noise.

I'm in this business to be creative - I'll even diminish it and say to be a content provider.

As a writer, as a creator, I'm giving you my experiences. But just take what I give you. You ain't got to pry beyond that.

It's hard to articulate how I think about myself as a public figure.

Super-envious of the fact that Daft Punk can wear robot helmets and be one of the most famous bands in the world, while also understanding that will never be my situation.

The way I approach this thing, when I started to get my head screwed on straight and really trying to make something of myself as an artist, when I was 19 or 20, it became more about function for me. Like, what is this song doing to you? What is the function of this type of artform? What is it doing?

A friend of mine jokes that I have a painstaking royalty complex. Like maybe I was a duke in a past life.

When I did have some success, it further emboldens you to be like, 'No, I'm just going to write what I feel I should write.'

I think we all change each other's paths. I don't know which law idea that is in physics, but I don't think any of us can live without affecting one another.

As long as your intentions are solid and about growth and progression and being productive and not being idle, then you're doing good in my book.

I'm extremely compassionate, loving, all of those warm fuzzy things, but the outer shell doesn't project that all the time.

I booked my first studio at like 12 or 13. Somewhere in that season of my life, singing along with the radio became me wanting to be on radio, you know.

You can't think; you just gotta do things.

I booked my first studio at like 12 or 13. Somewhere in that season of my life, singing along with the radio became me wanting to be on radio, you know. And writing Langston Hughes replica poems became me wanting to write like Stevie Wonder.

I was a thug.

No, I don't like you, I just thought you were cute enough to kiss you.

It's cool to be recognised by your peers.

When I was growing up, there was nobody in my family - not even my mother - who I could look to and be like, 'I know you've never said anything homophobic.' So, you know, you worry about people in the business who you've heard talk that way. Some of my heroes coming up talk recklessly like that.