Frank McCourt

After a full belly all is poetry.

— Frank McCourt

Education is an art.

— Frank McCourt

I am teaching. Storytelling is teaching

— Frank McCourt

People want real-life stories.

— Frank McCourt

I don't know anything about a stock!

— Frank McCourt

“I don't give a fiddler's fart!”

— Frank McCourt

My sister died in Brooklyn.

— Frank McCourt

Keep scribbling! Something will happen.

— Frank McCourt

“There's nothing worse in the world than to owe and be beholden to anyone.”

— Frank McCourt

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

— Frank McCourt

You have to give yourself credit, not too much because that would be bragging.

— Frank McCourt

“What are they, Dad? Cows, son. What are cows, Dad? Cows are cows, son.”

— Frank McCourt

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

— Frank McCourt

When I act tough they listen politely till the spasm passes. They know.

— Frank McCourt

People come up to me and talk about the alcoholism in their family.

— Frank McCourt

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

— Frank McCourt

There's nothing sillier in the world than a teacher telling you don't do it after you already did it.

— Frank McCourt

“I was sick of my miserable childhood, too, the way it followed me across the Atlantic and kept nagging at me to…

— Frank McCourt

Love her as in childhood Through feeble, old and grey. For you’ll never miss a mother’s love Till she’s buried beneath the…

— Frank McCourt

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

— Frank McCourt

“Saturday night when you have a few shillings in your pocket is the most delicious night of the week.”

— Frank McCourt

If you were mean to your parents, they'd give you a good belt in the gob and send you flying across the…

— Frank McCourt

Your mind is a treasure house that you should stock well and it's the one part of you the world can't interfere…

— Frank McCourt

The part of Limerick we lived in is Georgian, you know, those Georgian houses. You see them in pictures of Dublin.

— Frank McCourt

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…

— Frank McCourt

I worked in a number of high schools in New York, and I wound up at Stuyvesant High School, which is known…

— Frank McCourt

“No one is so busy they can't take time to make a decent cup of tea and if you are that busy…

— 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…

— Frank McCourt

“The boys from Staten Island would fill more body bags than Stuyvesant could ever imagine. Mechanics and plumbers had to fight while…

— Frank McCourt

I would dream of going up to the 'New York Times' and asking them if I could please be a copy boy…

— Frank McCourt

You sail into the harbor, and Staten Island is on your left, and then you see the Statue of Liberty. This is…

— Frank McCourt

And, of course, they've always condemned dancing. You know, you might touch a member of the opposite sex. And you might get…

— Frank McCourt

“JESUS & THE WEATHER I don't think Jesus Who is Our Lord would have liked the weather in Limerick because it's always…

— Frank McCourt

“Women stand with their arms folded chatting. They don't sit because all they do is stay at home, take care of the…

— Frank McCourt

“Here I am looking at my lovely ten-year-old daughter, Maggie, in her white dress, singing Protestant hymns with the choir at the…

— Frank McCourt

If somebody wants me to speak in, say, Chicago, a limousine picks me up at the door to brings me to the…

— Frank McCourt

I must congratulate myself, in passing, for never having lost the ability to examine my conscience, never having lost the gift of…

— Frank McCourt

People everywhere brag and whimper about the woes of their early years, but nothing can compare with the Irish version: the poverty;…

— Frank McCourt

“When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I survived at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the…

— Frank McCourt

In the high school classroom you are a drill sergent, a rabbi, a shoulder to cry on, a disciplinarian, a singer, a…

— Frank McCourt