Frank McCourt quotes

Frank McCourt was an Irish-American author and teacher, best known for his memoir "Angela's Ashes." His vivid storytelling captured the hardships and resilience of his impoverished childhood in Limerick, Ireland. He received the Pulitzer Prize and inspired millions with his honest and poignant writing. Here are 65 of his quotes:

I know that big people don't like questions from children. They can ask all the questions they like, How's school? Are you a good boy? Did you say your prayers? but if you ask them did they say their prayers you might be hit on the head.

Frank McCourt

Sing your song. Dance your dance. Tell your tale.

Frank McCourt

It's lovely to know that the world can't interfere with the inside of your head.

Frank McCourt

When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I survived at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood.

Frank McCourt

There's no use saying anything in the schoolyard because there's always someone with an answer and there's nothing you can do but punch them in the nose and if you were to punch everyone who has an answer you'd be punching morning noon and night.

Frank McCourt

I asked my dad what afflicted meant and he said 'Sickness son, and things that don't fit.

Frank McCourt

The sky is the limit. You never have the same experience twice.

Frank McCourt

Happiness is hard to recall. Its just a glow.

Frank McCourt

There's so much absurdity. Poverty is so absurd.

Frank McCourt

I admire certain priests and nuns who go off on their own and do God's work on their own, who help in the ghettos, but as far as the institution of the church is concerned, I think it is despicable.

Frank McCourt

First of all there is always that artistic challenge of creating something. Or the particular experience to take slum life in that period and make something out of it in the form of a book. And then I felt some kind of responsibility to my family.

Frank McCourt

I can't go back. The past won't go away in this family.

Frank McCourt

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

But I don't know how I'll ever get a college degree and rise in the world with no high school diploma and eyes like piss holes in the snow, as everyone tells me.

Frank McCourt

I don't want to sneer, but old habits die hard. It's the resentment. Not even anger. Just resentment. I shake my head over the things that concern them, that middle-class stuff, it's too hot, it's too cold and this is not the toothpaste I like. Here am I after three decades in America still happy to be able to turn on the electric light or reach for a towel after the shower.

Frank McCourt

Remember, if this is your world, you're one of them, a teenager. You live in two worlds. You're with them, day in, day out, and you'll never know, Mac, what that does to your mind. Teenager forever. June will come and it's bye-bye teacher, nice knowin' you, my sister's gonna be in your class in September. But there's something else, Mac. In any classroom, something is always happening. They keep you on your toes. They keep your fresh. You'll never grow old, but the danger is you might have the mind of an adolescent forever. That's a real problem, Mac. You get used to talking to those kids on their level. Then when you go to a bar for a beer you forgot how to talk to your friends and they look at you. They look at your like you just arrived from another planet and they're right.

Frank McCourt

... you, the privileged, the chosen, the pampered, with nothing to do but go to school, hang out, do a little studying, go to college, get into a money-making racket, grow into your fat forties, still whining, still complaining, when there are millions around the world who'd offer fingers and toes to be in your seats, nicely clothed, well fed, with the world by the balls.

Frank McCourt

I'd like to stand up in those classes and announce to the world that I'm too busy to be Irish or Catholic or anything else, that I'm working day and night to make a living, trying to read books for my courses and falling asleep in the library [...].

Frank McCourt

A mother's love is a blessing No matter where you roam. Keep her while you have her, You'll miss her when she's gone.

Frank McCourt

Just let them sit in the goddam sun. But the world won't let them because there's nothing more dangerous than letting old farts sit in the sun. They might be thinking. Same thing with kids. Keep 'em busy or they might start thinking.

Frank McCourt

You might be poor, your shoes might be broken, but your mind is a palace.

Frank McCourt

Stock your mind. It is your house of treasure and no one in the world can interfere with it.

Frank McCourt