170 Frank Ocean Quotes on Life & Music

We’ve gathered these Frank Ocean quotes to help you find yourself whenever you feel out of place or lost in the world.

Frank Ocean is one of the most private people of this generation.

He is the kind of artist that intentionally avoids the spotlight. Aside from being mysterious, his music will intrigue you and make you curious to learn more about his true self.

He is truly an inspiration to all. If you’re interested to learn more about him, read through this collection for you to be inspired by his fame.

Start here.

And make sure to check out these Tyler, The Creator quotes.

Best Frank Ocean Quotes

1. “Just remember, someone loves everything you hate about yourself.”

2. “There’s just some magic in truth, and honesty, and openness.”

3. “He doesn’t care for me, but he cares for me. And that’s good enough.”

4. “It’s hell on Earth and the city’s on fire. Inhale, in hell there’s heaven.”

5. “When you’re happy, you enjoy the music; but when you’re sad, you understand the lyrics.”

6. “Work hard in silence, let success be your noise.”

7. “Never run back to what broke you.”

8. “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.”

9. “We met for a reason—either you’re a blessing or a lesson.”

10. “Don’t ever play with someone’s feelings. You could win the game, but you could lose that person forever.”

11. “I could hate you now, it’s quite alright to hate me now.” 

12. “I wish I could sleep without being dead, but sleep forever at the same time.”

13. “Smile, it’s easier than explaining why you’re sad.”

14. “Each individual’s success as a solo artist is pretty much a win for the whole team.”

Famous Frank Ocean Quotes

15. “Keep alive, stay alive.”

16. “Don’t confuse my personality with my attitude. My personality is who I am, and my attitude depends on who you are.”

17. “I broke your heart last week, you’ll probably feel better by the weekend.”

18. “The internet made fame wack and anonymity cool.”

19. “Go for someone who is proud to have you.”

20. “No, you can’t make everybody equal, although you got beaucoup family you don’t even get nobody being honest with you.”

21. “I’m about being the best.”

22. “I make pop culture.”

23. “People are just afraid of things too much—afraid of things that don’t necessarily merit fear.”

24. “I’ve gotten used to being Frank Ocean.”

25. “I don’t fear anybody at all.”

26. “Now and then you miss it, sound makes you cry, some nights you dance with tears in your eyes.”

27. “You just do what you can and you have as much fun as possible.”

28. “I know that we sin, but I do believe we try—we all try.”

29. “Did you call me from a séance? You are from a past life.”

Inspirational Frank Ocean Quotes

30. “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.”

31. “Why see the world, when you got the beach?”

32. “Been living in an idea, an idea from another man’s mind.”

33. “Keep writing. Keep living. Keep loving.”

34. “Dreaming a thought that could dream about a thought, that could think of the dreamer that thought, that could think of dreaming and getting a glimmer of God.”

35. “It’s just really about trying to do whatever it is I do at a level of excellence. That’s really all I’m trying to do while I’m here.”

36. “Excuses are the tools of the weak and incompetent. They build bridges to nowhere and tunnels to nothingness. Those who excel in them seldom do anything else, therefore, there are no excuses.”

37. “What do you think my brain is made for? Is it just a container for the mind? This great gray matter.”

38. “Don’t feel sad over someone who gave up on you. Feel sorry for them because they gave up on someone who would have never given up on them.”

39. “Remember life—remember how it was.”

40. “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.”

41. “Distance sometimes lets you know who’s worth keeping and who’s worth letting go.”

42. “Some people focus more on sonics. Some people focus more on the story. I focus on both sonics and story, but music sometimes, just music itself, can turn into more of a maths problem. I guess everything in life is a math problem, but it can be more about an empirical route to getting the symmetry that you want, and this vibe, sonically.”

43. “You can’t think—you just gotta do things.”

44. “The worst part of being lied to is when you realize you believed it.”

Frank Ocean Quotes About Love

45. “She straightens her hair, puts on eyeliner, glosses her lips, and takes one last look in the mirror—all for the boy who doesn’t care.”

46. “I’m not him, but I’ll mean something to you.”

47. “We’re not in love, but I’ll make love to you.”

48. “With my art, it’s the one thing that I know will outlive me and outlive my feelings. It will outlive my depressive seasons.”

49. “I don’t know if I ever told you this before, but you’re the only one I ever waited for this long.”

50. “I will always love you how I do.”

51. “No, I don’t like you, I just thought you were cute enough to kiss you.”

52. “I’ve been thinking about forever.”

53. “I’ll always love you, until the time we die.”

54. “You look down on where you came from sometimes, but you’ll have this place to call home, always.”

55. “Those who are heartless, once cared too much.”

56. “You wanna keep me now? Don’t let me down.”

57. “Feelings that come back are feelings that never left.”

58. “It’s a bad religion to be in love with someone who could never love you.”

59. “Wanna feel that lovin’ when you come by.”

Frank Ocean Quotes That Will Pique Your Interest

60. “I don’t know anything and neither do you.”

61. “I hope not to define myself by suffering.”

62. “Art’s everything we hope life would be, a lot of times.”

63. “This is life, life immortality.”

64. “I’d rather live outside. I’d rather chip my pride than lose my mind out here.”

65. “Every night f*cks every day up, every day patches the night up.”

66. “I’m big on what’s in good taste.”

67. “I know that your n*gg* came with you, But he ain’t with you.”

68. “I could see you’re faking, If you could see my thoughts you would see our faces.”

69. “This unrequited love, to me, it’s nothing but a one-man cult and cyanide in my styrofoam cup.”

70. “Living so the last night feels like a past life.”

71. “Sometimes, I feel like I’m a god but I’m not a god.”

72. “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.”

73. “I’m sure we’re taller in another dimension. You say we’re small and not worth the mention.”

74. “Once I catch you in one lie, it makes me question everything you said.”

Powerful Frank Ocean Quotes

75. “Why am I preaching to this choir—to this atheist?”

76. “She’s got the whole wide world in her juicy fruit. He’s got the whole wide world in his pants. She’s got the whole wide world in her hands. He’s got the whole wide world in his hands.”

77. “I’m not a centerfold.”

78. “That’s a pretty f*ck*ng fast year flew by.”

79. “The internet is just another experiment showing us more sides of us.”

80. “If someone breaks your heart, just punch them in the face. Seriously. Punch them in the face and go get some ice cream.”

81. “My waves wouldn’t dip back then, everything sucked back then, we were friends.”

82. “Shut the f*ck up I don’t want your conversation.”

83. “Wish I was there, wish we had grown up on the same advice.”

84. “I don’t have any secrets I need to keep anymore.”

85. “It’s about the stories. If I write 14 stories that I love, then the next step is to get the environment of music around it to best envelop the story, and all kinds of sonic goodness—sonic goodies.”

86. “Arm around my shoulder so I could tell how much I meant to you—meant it sincerely back then.”

87. “I have no delusions about my likability in every scenario. I know that in order to get things done the way you want them, oftentimes your position will be unpopular.”

88. “My TV ain’t HD, that’s too real.”

89. “Stop trying to be somebody else. Don’t try to be some else. Be yourself and know that that’s good enough.”

Frank Ocean Quotes on Relationships

90. “I’ll be the boyfriend in your wet dreams tonight.”

91. “You’ve been missing all my night, still got some good nights memorized.”

92. “I know you don’t need me right now, and to you it’s just a late night out. Roots run deep, family throw a big shadow.”

93. “I came to visit ‘cause you see me like a UFO, that’s like never ‘cause I made you use your self control.”

94. “I thought that I was dreaming when you said you love me.”

95. “Forgot to tell you, gotta tell you how much I vibe with you.”

96. “I didn’t care to state the plain, kept my mouth closed, we’re both so familiar.”

97. “I’m extremely compassionate, loving—all of those warm fuzzy things, but the outer shell doesn’t project that all the time.”

98. “There will be mountains you won’t move, still I’ll always be there for you.”

99. “This love will keep us blinded by the eyes, silence in the ears, darkness of the mind.”

100. “We don’t talk much or nothin’, but when we talkin’ about something, we have good discussion.”

101. “I believe that marriage isn’t between a man and woman, but between love and love.”

102. “You text nothing like you look.”

103. “You showed me love, glory from above. Good glory.”

104. “To the edge I’ll race you, to the end I’ll make it, all the risk, I’ll take it.”

Frank Ocean Quotes on Self-Awareness

105. “I was a thug.”

106. “As a man, I am not a killer. I’m an artist and a modern person. I’ll choose sanity.”

107. “Hand me a towel, I’m dirty dancing by myself.”

108. “I believe that I’m one of the best in the world at what I do, and that’s all I’ve ever wanted to be.”

109. “So low that I can give a f*ck about what is trending.”

110. “I worked my face off.”

111. “If it brings me to my knees, it’s a bad religion.”

112. “I respect Drake not only as a creative person, but as a business mind as well. I think Drake’s important.”

113. “I’m up and naked, you dream of walls that hold us in prison.”

114. “It’s hard to articulate how I think about myself as a public figure.”

115. “I’m just a guy, I’m not a god. Sometimes I feel like I’m a god, but I’m not a god.”

116. “I grew up in New Orleans. I had just moved into my dorm at the University of New Orleans, and I was doing laundry, and my mom called me, like, ‘We’ve got to evacuate. There’s a hurricane coming.’”

117. “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.”

118. “It’s more interesting for me to figure out how to be superior in areas where I’m naive, where I’m a novice.”

119. “I play piano every day. I enjoy that.”

Frank Ocean Quotes About His Writing and Music

120. “I don’t intend to stop making music.”

121. “Obviously, the cinematography of films is art, just as a still shot can be art. If I’m watching a Wes Anderson movie, the color palettes alone, and the way they’re painted, could be art. With music, you’re a little bit limited, of course, because it’s only audio.”

122. “I wrote ‘Channel Orange’ in two weeks. The end product wasn’t always that gritty, real-life depiction of the real struggle that happened.”

123. “I had writer’s block for almost a year.”

124. “I might just write a novel next. I don’t know!”

125. “I’ve written some great things. That’s a gift, but there’s consequences. Yeah, you get this great work, but you suffer. You really, really suffer.”

126. “My music definitely comes from a place of experience. Everything connects to a truth.”

127. “I feel like I was writing as I was learning to talk. Writing was always a go-to form of communication. And I knew I could sing from being in tune with the radio.”

128. “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.”

129. “I enjoy singing my songs in front of people. I enjoy being involved in making the artwork for albums and stupid stuff like that.”

130. “Here’s what I think about music and journalism—the most important thing is to just press play.”

131. “You gotta make sure the listener is listening to you, so if you put it into a song, oftentimes, if the song is striking enough, then you can really deliver the story most effectively while keeping the ear of the listener the whole time.”

132. “Sometimes, I want to talk on a song and be angry, because I am angry. Then there’s always a part of me that remembers that this record lives past my being angry, and so do I really want to be angry about that? Is that feeling going to have longevity?”

134. “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.”

134. “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.’”

Frank Ocean Quotes on His Career

135. “I never think about myself as an artist working in this time. I think about it in macro.”

136. “Know them boys wanna see me broke down, wanna see me bummed out, stressed out.”

137. “We all know we have a finite period of time. I just feel if I’m going to be alive, I want to be challenged—to be as immortal as possible. The path to that isn’t an easy way, but it’s a rewarding way.”

138. “It’s cool to be recognized by your peers.”

139. “In the studio, we adhere to a strict color code. Developed over decades, the color code consists of a finite and precise color palate. The whole world as we experience it comes to us through the mystic realm of color.”

140. “I’m in this business to be creative. I’ll even diminish it and say to be a content provider.”

141. “Of course awards matter.”

142. “The first four and a half years was me in the studio every day, writing songs for other people. I had jobs, too—eleven jobs. I worked at Kinko’s, Fatburger, Subway—I was a sandwich artist—and I was a claims processor at Allstate Insurance.”

143. “It started to weigh on me that I was responsible for the moves that had made me successful, but I wasn’t reaping the lion’s share of the profits, and that was problematic for me.”

144. “I’ve always wanted to make a career in the arts, and I think that my only hope at doing that is to make it more about the work.”

145. “Sometimes I’m fascinated with how famous my work could be while I’m not so famous.”

146. “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.”

147. “I guess I’m just inspired to tell stories.”

148. “It’s not essential for me to have a big debut week. It’s not essential for me to have big radio records.”

149. “I can operate in half-a-song format.”

Frank Ocean Quotes on His Life Experiences

150. “Summer’s not as long as it used to be, everyday counts like crazy.”

151. “Rely and trust upon your own decisions. On your own beliefs.”

152. “Whenever I think about movies, I always look at that art process as having the best of a lot of worlds. Because if you watch a great film, you have a musical element to it, not just on the scoring, but in the way that the shots are edited—that has music and rhythm and time.”

153. “As a lifestyle, you always being the focal point is innately unhealthy.”

154. “I don’t ever want to be caught up in a system of thinking I can do one thing ‘cos that’s just—that’s just telling yourself a lie.”

155. “We were poor. But my mom never accepted that. She worked hard to become a residential contractor—got her master’s with honors at the University of New Orleans. I used to go to every class with her. Her father was my paternal figure.”

156. “All in all, I just don’t trust journalists—and I don’t think it’s a good practice for me to trust journalists.”

157. “The idea of recognizing your strengths and using them in as versatile a way as you can is cool to me.”

158. “This has always been my life and no one else’s, and that’s how it’s always been since the day I came in it.”

159. “The way I approached 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?”

More Frank Ocean Quotes

160. “Ain’t ran since track meet, that’s the only time I ran from a n*gg*.”

161. “Less morose and more present, dwell on my gifts for a second.”

162. “Boys do cry, but I don’t think I shed a tear for a good chunk of my teenage years.”

163. “I won’t touch on risky, because that’s subjective.”

164. “In art, at a certain level, there is no ‘better than.’ It’s just about trying to operate for yourself on a supreme level, artistically, that you can and hoping that people get it. Trusting that, just because of the way people are built and how interconnected we are, greatness will translate and symmetry will be recognized.”

165. “I can’t usually stomach a project after I finish it, but for those days and weeks and months that it’s new to me, I do listen to it, and it might change over time, but it’s about function.”

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

167. “The work is the work. The work is not me.”

168. “Because I’m not in a record deal, I don’t have to operate in an album format.”

169. “When you write a song like ‘Forrest Gump,’ the subject can’t be androgynous. It requires an unnecessary amount of effort.”

170. “I run my hands through what’s left but we’re getting older, baby, how much longer baby?”

Which of These Frank Ocean Quotes Inspired You to Never Settle For Less?

Frank Ocean grew up without his father by his side, and with only his mother and grandfather to guide him. Growing up, he spent most of his time alone. He liked to climb to the rooftop while listening to music through his headphones.

Ocean was drawn to music because he thought that it could be an avenue that’ll give him opportunities. Even though his mother was against him making music, he still did it.

To support himself, he worked different kinds of jobs. Later on, he discovered that he can make money through writing songs for other people. Since then, he became well-known by many producers and even made his own label.

Frank Ocean teaches us that no matter what our situation is right now, we should enjoy the greatest moments of our life. We don’t need to worry about our future, and we should only take everything day by day.

Did you enjoy reading this collection of Frank Ocean’s quotes? Do you have any favorites? We would love to hear about it in the comments section below.

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Karen Danao

Hi, I’m Karen, a content curator and writer for Quote Ambition; I’m also a marketing and advertising professional. Beyond the keyboard and the screen, I’m someone who’s out to enjoy every bit that life has to offer!

Poetry, philosophy, history, and movies are all topics I love writing about! However, my true passion is in traveling, photography, and finding common ground to which everyone from different cultures can relate.

With the many places I’ve been to, I found that love, inspiration, and happiness are some things that bring people together. No matter how different we are on the outside, I’m a true believer that our emotions don’t lie; if you dig deep into our psyche, we’re all the same inside.

This belief was further amplified when I joined Quote Ambition. Through the quotes I’ve read, collected, organized, and written about, I found that humans are resilient, creative, and compassionate.

We take from each others’ hearts and courage, and it’s through our individual experiences that we learn how to rise above our challenges and pain. In so many ways, Quote Ambition is a platform that allows people from all over the world to gain the inspiration they need anytime, anywhere!

You can find me on MuckRack and LinkedIn.