I think there's something about the Irish experience - that we had to have a sense of humor or die. — Frank McCourt Copy Share Image
The part of Limerick we lived in is Georgian, you know, those Georgian houses. You see them in pictures of Dublin. — Frank McCourt Copy Share Image
I had moments with my father that were exquisite - the stories he told me about Cuchulain, the mythological Irish warrior, are… — Frank McCourt Copy Share Image
I think that's why you see so many Americans in Dublin look so sad: they are looking for the door through which… — Frank McCourt Copy Share Image
I couldn't fit in the Irish community in New York. I was never one of the boys because they would talk about… — Frank McCourt Copy Share Image
Worse than the ordinary, miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood. — Frank McCourt Copy Share Image
There was a kind of madness in the country. Eamon De Valera, the prime minister, had this vision of an Ireland where… — Frank McCourt Copy Share Image
People everywhere brag and whimper about the woes of their early years, but nothing can compare with the Irish version: the poverty;… — Frank McCourt Copy Share Image
I'm not one of those James Joyce intellectuals who can stand back and look at the whole edifice... It was a slow process for… — Frank McCourt Copy Share
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,… — Frank McCourt Copy Share
Just luxuriate in a certain memory, and the details will come. It's like a magnet attracting steel filings. — Frank McCourt Copy Share
They all went into the bar business. Which was a mistake, because they began to sip at the merchandise and it set them back,… — Frank McCourt Copy Share
My childhood here... was very limited. So it was a long, long time before I actually went out to Brooklyn. — Frank McCourt Copy Share
We never really had any kind of a Christmas. This is one part where my memory fails me completely. — Frank McCourt Copy Share
A lot of people say writers start losing their powers after 60 or 65. But I look at the best-seller list and see a… — Frank McCourt Copy Share
“When the dark clouds flutter like bats in my head I wish I could open a window and release them.” — Frank McCourt Copy Share
I just have to proceed as usual. No matter what happens, nothing helps with the writing of the next book. — Frank McCourt Copy Share
Worse than the ordinary, miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood. — Frank McCourt Copy Share
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… — Frank McCourt Copy Share
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… — Frank McCourt Copy Share
