“ Sit and quiet yourself. Luxuriate in a certain memory and the details will come. Let the images flow. You'll be amazed at what will come out on paper. I'm still learning what it is about the past that… Frank McCourt
“ 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 th… Frank McCourt
“ I became a teacher all right. I wanted to become a teacher because I had a misconception about it. I didn't know that I'd be going into - when I first became a high school teacher in New York, that I'… Frank McCourt
“ We don't look at teachers as scholars the way they do in Europe. In Spain you're called a professor if you're a high school teacher, and they pay teachers - they pay teachers in Europe. Frank McCourt
“ Mam was always saying we had a simple diet: tea and bread, bread and tea, a liquid and a solid, a balanced diet - what more do you need? Nobody got fat. Frank McCourt
“ Actually, my mother and Alfie came for three weeks' Christmas vacation and stayed for 21 years. I guess my mother never went back because she was lonely. Frank McCourt
“ We never really had any kind of a Christmas. This is one part where my memory fails me completely. Frank McCourt
“ When I was a teacher, I'd walk into the classroom. I stood at the board. I was the man. I directed operations. I was an intellectual and artistic and moral traffic cop, and I - and I would direct the… Frank McCourt
“ I think there's something about the Irish experience - that we had to have a sense of humor or die. Frank McCourt
“ Stock your mind. It is your house of treasure and no one in the world can interfere with it. Frank McCourt
“ You sail into the harbor, and Staten Island is on your left, and then you see the Statue of Liberty. This is what everyone in the world has dreams of when they think about New York. And I thought, 'My… 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… Frank McCourt
“ For some reason, I had a responsibility to my family and the people who lived around me. I felt that I had to convey their dignity - the way they dealt with adversity and poverty - and their good humo… Frank McCourt
“ Kids all want to look cool, as if knowledge is a great burden, but they're always looking around. They remember. Frank McCourt
