Frank McCourt Quotes (78 Quotes)

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.

I am for who i was in the beginning but now is present and i exist in the future.

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.

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.

If ever you're getting a dog, Francis, make sure it's a Buddhist. Good-natured dogs, the Buddhists. Never, never get a Mahommedan. They'll eat you sleeping. Never a Catholic dog. They'll eat you every day including Fridays.

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

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

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.

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.

I think I settled on the title before I ever wrote the book.

All those smells... and the kids, we were the great unwashed... nobody ever knew what a shower was... We washed maybe from eyebrow to chin, week after week after week. Our crotches were innocent of water.

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

He would have a keen eye for baseball talent and experience to do the job.

Another student, Ken, the son of Korean immigrants, enrages his ambitious father when he decides to go to Stanford, instead of Harvard or M.I.T. as his father had hoped. He appeared at my classroom door a few days before Christmas and told me I had helped him get through the last year of high school, ... At one time he had a dream of going into a dark alleyway with his father and only one of them would come out. He'd be the one, of course, but out there in Stanford, he began to think about his father and what it was like coming from Korea, working day and night selling fruit and vegetables when he knew barely enough English to get through the day, hanging on, desperate for his children to get the education he never had in Korea, that you couldn't even dream of in Korea.

I think Eric just embodies what we want here with the Dodgers. He's passionate about winning -- he knows it's all about the fans so he wears his heart on his sleeve and he gives back to the community. He's a big part of the community -- he's the face of the Dodgers and that's very, very important. The community respects that because he gives back.

I was tormented. Fear and trembling. And a sense of doom. A literal belief in hell. Hell for eternity. With devils chasing you for eternity with pitchforks. I trembled. I couldn't go to sleep for fear I might die and wake up in hell. I was in agony.

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.

Kids are constantly comparing, especially teenagers, constantly comparing themselves with other people. And when you're ragged and you're physically, almost repulsive, as I was, with infected eyes and rotting teeth and so on, and clothes that were ragged, I had no self-esteem. How could I

Something happened to the spirit in the famine, and they retreated into their caverns and into themselves. And they haven't come out.

My mother died in New York... she was cremated, and we took her ashes to Ireland one week and scattered the ashes on her family's gravesite.

He has character, integrity, honesty, loyalty. ... He's trustworthy and accountable,

We decided to put in a park and picnic area. It will accommodate about 500 people for groups. We wanted to find incredibly mature landscaping, installed in such a way that it will create a park-like setting that was consistent with all the other beautiful landscaping that exists around Dodger Stadium.

I had to get rid of any idea of hell or any idea of the afterlife. That's what held me, kept me down. So now I just have nothing but contempt for the institution of the church.

I thought I'd go mad. At one point I thought I'd put a plastic bag over my head and jump into the Hudson River.

My childhood here... was very limited. So it was a long, long time before I actually went out to Brooklyn.

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.

I began to look at other religions, Buddhism and so on, and realized there is another way of looking at life. A more benign way of looking at life.

As we deliberated about colors, someone spotted the samples of the original seats that were installed here in 1962. Somebody had the presence of mind to store them in a warehouse and label them, so we were able to exactly replicate the original colors with these new seats.

We never really had any kind of a Christmas. This is one part where my memory fails me completely.

You know how it is in Hollywood, everybody kisses everybody. It's a handshake in Ireland. And a kind of tentativeness. Except when it's mothers and small children.

I've been writing in notebooks for 40 years or so.

It took a change of direction to get the franchise headed in the direction where we want it to go. If things had been perfect, it would be steady at the helm. We were looking to change direction. There was debate, discussion. If it was not done, we never would have achieved the results. Overall, I'm very pleased with what we've achieved. Now we're headed in a great direction. We're in a far better place.

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.

As far as trying to trade him is concerned, that never happened. Derek expressed accountability, he faced this challenge like a man, and we only offered our support.

There were positive things about the church, that is, in the European cultural sense, the architecture, the liturgy, the music, the art, such as it was, the stations of the cross in the church, the tradition, and the atmosphere of awe and mystery in the mass. The atmosphere of miracle, one of mainly mystery, that's what fascinates me.

I don't absolve my father completely of his responsibility for what he did to us... I feel compassion, maybe. He had his demons. But I still can't understand how a man can walk away from children. And leave them to starve, as we nearly did, if it wasn't for my mother going out and begging.

The main thing I am interested in is my experience as a teacher.

I'm very mindful of this franchise's tradition of greatness.

I'm more interested in writing than in performing.

When I first came to New York and saw Italian families and their displays of affection, I was taken aback a bit because it was uninhibited.

What saved me was my accent, I think I was a bit of a novelty. Otherwise, I certainly didn't have the personality, or the power, or the scholarship to dominate the class.

Before the famine, which was in the 1840s, that was an emotional turning point... There are various documents showing how the Elizabethan English, in particular, were shocked by Irish displays of affection, by the way women acted toward strangers, walking up and putting their arms around them and kissing them right full on the mouth.

Initially I thought I'd write a novel, so that I'd have more scope. You can spread your wings more with a novel.

Happiness is hard to recall. Its just a glow.

We were able to bring the life back to the concrete. We were able to treat it like it was new, so it will be able to withstand another 50 years of active use.

Viva Los Dodgers has become one of the most anticipated events of the year. We're thrilled to continue this special tradition, ... The Dodgers take great pride in having strong ties to the Latino community and providing all of our fans with high-quality family entertainment all season long.

It's important to celebrate not just winning, but a type of winning we can respect. This is a team we can all relate to. They had that thing called character. This is a team worthy of this weekend's celebration.

It's not just Catholic versus Protestant any more. I read somewhere that in any construction site in Belfast, they have protection rackets. And you have to clear your trucking with the IRA, just like the Mafia here.

And, of course, they've always condemned dancing. You know, you might touch a member of the opposite sex. And you might get excited and you might do something natural.

The original architects aimed for what was really a quintessential, mid-century, California type of color. I think they got it just right. Sometimes it's just best to recognize when something is done just right the first time and try to duplicate it as best you can.