CAGE: I like the Marcel Duchamp directive. The way he expressed it, if I can remember correctly, is “To reach the impossibility of transferring from one like image to another the memory imprint.” In other words, to come to the point of living like a tourist.

—John Cage on experiencing life, and thus art, in the present, from an interview with Brian Eno. Musician: A Meeting Of Sound Minds

Zappa albums valorise the idea of virtuoso instrumentalists and guitar heroes (or rather, Jean Luc Ponty, Terry Bozzio and Steve Vai) to a point which is beyond parody, however. We were always meant to worship these people, make no mistake about it. (You can never get through any piece on Zappa without certain giveaway buzz phrases cropping up: “chops”, “seamless virtuosity”, “modal run”, “great studio sound”, etc.) This is, in essence, as un-rock or un-subversive as music can get, in a way that Terry Riley or Morton Feldman or John Cage, say, never were: this is all about how fast your fingers can go. … And how low your sarcasm can dredge.

—The Wire pulling no punches on reviewing Zappa’s oeuvre. Frank Zappa: Don’t do that on stage anymore