Quotes from Frank McCourt

but a man that drinks the money for a new baby is gone beyond the beyonds as my mother would say.

I want to tell them I won't be able to die for the Faith because I'm already booked to die for Ireland.

and if I were in America I could say, I love you, Dad, the way they do in the films, but you can't say that in Limerick for fear you might be laughed at. You're allowed to say love you God and babies and horses that win but anything else is a softness in the head.

In all my years at Stuyvesant only one parent, a mother, asked if her son was enjoying school. I said yes. He seemed to be enjoying himself. She smiled, stood up, said, Thank you, and left. One parent in all those years.

If everyone moved on and up and out who would teach the children?

Stock your mind, stock your mind. It is your house of treasure and no one in the world can interfere with it... you might be poor, your shoes might be broken, but your mind is a palace.

Tis' your life, make your own decisions and to hell with the begrudgers, Frankie.

He said Mao Tse-tung and the Communists would save China and the lieutenant showing the film said communism is evil, godless, unAmerican, and Di Angelo said capitalism was evil, godless and unAmerican and he wouldn't give two cents for isms anyway because people with isms cause all the troubles in the world and you may have noticed there is no ism in democracy.

No, I wouldn't mind after priests telling us that all prayers that are unselfish and not for ourselves reach God's ears.

If you ever say anything good about Oliver Cromwell they'll all hit you.

Never smoke another man's pipe.

I have no notion of what he's talking about. I have to lie and say, I do. He says, You do know he was perhaps the greatest satirist in English literature. I thought he was Irish.

You're the first boy I ever met who didn't know what a linebacker is. Boy. I'm twenty-four years old and she's calling me a boy and I'm wondering do you have to be forty to be a man in America?

I was barely seventeen. I was ignorant, missus. We grew up ignorant in Limerick...we're mothers before we're women. And there's nothing here but rain and oul' biddies saying the rosaries. I'd give me teeth to get out, go to America or even England itself.

I was barely seventeen. I was ignorant, missus. We grew up ignorant in Limerick...we're mothers before we're women. And there's nothing here but rain and oul' biddies saying the rosary. I'd give me teeth to get out, go to America or even England itself.

And I suppose they'll be wanting sugar and milk on top of everything or the might be banging on my door looking for an egg if you don't mind. I don't know why we have to pay for Angela's mistakes. Jesus, says Grandma, 'tis a good thing you didn't own that stable in Bethlehem or the Holy Family would still be wanderin' the world crumblin' with the hunger

If you had the luck of the Irish You'd be sorry and wish you was dead If you had the luck of the Irish Then you'd wish you was English instead

I remember what my uncle Pa Keating would say, there are times when you wouldn't know whether to shit or go blind.

Tis easy to see they're not used to having anything the way the brag about everything.

Better an English accent than an empty belly.

When I asked her about her days in Brooklyn she doled out scraps and then went silent. What was the use? The past is the past and it's dangerous to go back.

Stock your mind, stock your mind. It is your house of treasure and no one in the world can interfere with it. If you won the Irish Sweepstakes and bought a house that needed furniture would you fill it with bits and pieces of rubbish? Your mind is your house and if you fill it with rubbish from the cinemas it will rot in your head. You might be poor, your shoes might be broken, but your mind is a palace.

Through journal writing, you'll discover how to get more benefit from everything that you've experienced. In the process, you'll discover that what you've learned from being a survivor has enriched your life beyond anything you've ever imagined.

Dad says I'll understand when I grow up. He tells me that all the time now and I want to be big like him so that I can understand everything. It must be lovely to wake up in the morning and understand everything. I wish I could be like all the big people in the church, standing and kneeling and praying and understanding everything.