They all went into the bar business. Which was a mistake, because they began to sip at the merchandise and it set them back, set us all back. Well, them more than I. Frank McCourt More Quotes by Frank McCourt More Quotes From Frank McCourt Where did I get the nerve to think I could handle American teenagers? Ignorance. That's where I got the nerve. Frank McCourt teenager ignorance thinking The sky is the limit. You never have the same experience twice. Frank McCourt experience workout sky Happiness is hard to recall. Its just a glow. Frank McCourt glowing happy happiness The master says it’s a glorious thing to die for the Faith and Dad says it’s a glorious thing to die for Ireland and I wonder if there’s anyone in the world who would like us to live. Frank McCourt ashes dad world He sits in an old armchair in the corner covered with bits of blankets and a bucket behind the chair that stinks enough to make you sick and when you look at that old man in the dark corner you want to get a hose with hot water and strip him and wash him down and give him a big feed of rashers and eggs and mashed potatoes with loads of butter and salt and onions.I want to take the man from the Boer War and the pile of rags in the bed and put them in a big sunny house in the country with birds chirping away outside the window and a stream gurgling. Frank McCourt dark war country 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? Frank McCourt nice tea people I don't know what it means and I don't care because it's Shakespeare and it's like having jewels in my mouth when I say the words. Frank McCourt jewels mouths mean I'm more interested in writing than in performing. Frank McCourt performing writing I must congratulate myself, in passing, for never having lost the ability to examine my conscience, never having lost the gift of finding myself wanting & defective. Why fear the criticism of others when you, yourself, are first out of the critical gate? If self-denigration is the race I am the winner, even before the starting gun. Collect the bets. Frank McCourt gun race self I think I settled on the title before I ever wrote the book. Frank McCourt titles book thinking I am teaching. Storytelling is teaching Frank McCourt storytelling teaching There's so much absurdity. Poverty is so absurd. Frank McCourt absurdity absurd poverty People everywhere brag and whimper about the woes of their early years, but nothing can compare with the Irish version: the poverty; the shiftless loquacious father; the pious defeated mother moaning by the fire; pompous priests; bullying school masters; the English and the terrible things they did to us for eight hundred long years. Above all -- we were wet. Frank McCourt bullying mother father You have to give yourself credit, not too much because that would be bragging. Frank McCourt credit would-be giving I am for who i was in the beginning but now is present and i exist in the future. Frank McCourt He says, you have to study and learn so that you can make up your own mind about history and everything else but you can’t make up an empty mind. 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. Frank McCourt empty-mind shoes broken Andy says, I don't understand how they can give loans to people who want to spend two weeks lying on the sand at the goddam Jersey shore and then turn down a woman with three kids hanging on by her fingernails. Frank McCourt two kids lying Your mind is a treasure house that you should stock well and it's the one part of you the world can't interfere with. Frank McCourt mind house world It's not enough to be American. You always have to be something else, Irish-American, German-American, and you'd wonder how they'd get along if someone hadn't invented the hyphen Frank McCourt hyphens enough wonder I appealed to my mother. I told her it wasn't fair the way the whole family was invading my dreams and she said, Arrah, for the love o' God, drink your tea and go to school and stop tormenting us with your dreams. Frank McCourt mother dream school
