Quotes from Frank McCourt

For many writers, the journal is their opportunity to be honest with them- selves—the greatest test of all.

El maestro dice que morir por la Fe es una cosa gloriosa, y papá dice que morir por Irlanda es una cosa gloriosa, y yo me pregunto si hay en el mundo alguien que quiera que vivamos.

There are bars of Pear's soap and a thick book called Pear's Encyclopedia, which keeps me up day and night because it tells you everything about everything and that's all I want to know.

Shakespeare es como el puré de patatas, no cansa nunca.

Mullingar heifers

Com'è che appena apro bocca tutti quanti mi dicono che sono irlandesi e perché non andiamo a bere qualcosa insieme? Essere americano non basta. Bisogna essere sempre anche qualcos'altro, irlandesi-americani, tedesco americani, sicché viene da chiedersi come sarebbero andati avanti se qualcuno non avesse inventato il trattino (110).

That's the main job of cops in New York, telling everyone move back.

My Stuyvesant students were not satisfied. Why was I telling them stories of women from the Islands and Puerto Ricans and Greeks when the world was going to hell? Because the women from the Islands believe in education. You can demonstrate and shake your fists, burn your draft cards and block the traffic with your bodies, but what do you know in the end? For the ladies from the Islands there is one relevance, education. That is all they know. That is all I know. That is all I need to know.

But, Grandma, this teacher is Irish. Oh, yeah? well, they're the worst, always talking and singing about green things or getting shot and hung.

Mobila?i-v? mintea, mobila?i-v? mintea. E casa voastr? pre?ioas? ?i nimeni pe lumea asta nu se poate atinge de ea.

E greu de priceput de ce-È™i ies oamenii mari din pepeni chiar aÈ™a de r?u din cauza unor lucruri m?runte cum sunt capacele de aerisire. Când o s? fiu om mare, n-o sa stau sa pocnesc copiii mici din cauz? de capace de aerisire sau mai È™tiu eu ce.

Michael zice c?-i pare r?u de viermii albi, dar noi È™tim c? lui îi pare rau de tot ce vieÈ›uieÈ™te pe lume.

but I can't back away from him because one in the morning is my real father 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.

Les diría que escribieran una nota de despedida de ciento cincuenta palabras, como si fueran a suicidarse. Sería un buen modo de animarles a pensar en la vida en sí, pues Samuel Johnson dijo que pensar que nos van a ahorcar a la mañana siguiente centra la mente de una manera maravillosa.

I told her tea bags were just a convenience for people with busy lives and she said no one is so busy they can't take time to make a decent cup of tea and if you are that busy you don't deserve a decent cup of tea for what is it all about anyway? Are we put into this world to be busy or to chat over a nice cup of tea?

and the small crowd of people outside the door of the priest's house. They're waiting to beg for any food left over from the priests' dinner. There in the middle of the crowd in her dirty gray coat is my mother. This is my mother begging...

School, Frankie, school. The books, the books, the books. Get out of Limerick before your legs rot and your mind collapses entirely.

Mr. O'Halloran tells the class it's a disgrace that boys like McCourt, Clarke, Kennedy, have to hew wood and draw water. He is disgusted by this free and independent Ireland that keeps a class system foisted on us by the English, that we are throwing our talented children on the dungheap.

On the last day of my teaching career, I was sitting in my apartment, having a glass of wine, thinking I'm glad I did it, that I had been somehow useful, that I had learned something.

When I was a kid, I was a pretty good runner, and there was nothing like winning a race.

I think that's why you see so many Americans in Dublin look so sad: they are looking for the door through which they can begin to understand this place. I tell them, 'Go to the races.' I think it's the best place to start understanding the Irish.

Some, like Mother Teresa, are born with a gene to help the poor, and some are born with a gene to write. I was born with a gene to tell my story, and I just had to.

I never expected to write a book about a slum in Ireland that was going to catapult me, as they say, into some kind of - onto the best seller list.

I can't go too much into my domestic life because there are ex-wives ready to do me in.