Quote

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 hadn't invented the hyphen

Frank McCourt

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Frank McCourt
Age: 78 †
Born: 1930
Born: August 19
Died: 2009
Died: July 19
Autobiographer
Novelist
Screenwriter
Teacher
Writer
Brooklyn
New York
Francis McCourt
Along
Wonder
American
Hyphen
Else
Hyphens
Someone
Irish
Enough
German
Something
Invented
Always
Hadn

More quotes by Frank McCourt

Image
If you were mean to your parents, they'd give you a good belt in the gob and send you flying across the room.
Frank McCourt
Image
Sing your song. Dance your dance. Tell your tale.
Frank McCourt
Image
I don't believe in happiness anyway... it's too much of an American pastime, this search for happiness. Just forget happiness and enjoy your misery.
Frank McCourt
Image
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
Image
Oh, God above, if heaven has a taste it must be an egg with butter and salt, and after the egg is there anything in the world lovelier than fresh warm bread and a mug of sweet golden tea?
Frank McCourt
Image
The sky is the limit. You never have the same experience twice.
Frank McCourt
Image
I told her tea bags were just a convenience for people with busy lives and she said no one is so busy they can't take time to make a decent cup of tea and if you are that busy you don't deserve a decent cup of tea for what is it all about anyway? Are we put into this world to be busy or to chat over a nice cup of tea?
Frank McCourt
Image
They can afford to smile because they all have teeth so dazzling if they dropped them in the snow they'd be lost forever.
Frank McCourt
Image
Bless me, Father, for I have sinned, it's been a minute since my last confession.
Frank McCourt
Image
The main thing I am interested in is my experience as a teacher.
Frank McCourt
Image
There's nothing sillier in the world than a teacher telling you don't do it after you already did it.
Frank McCourt
Image
He says, You have to study and learn so that you can make up your own mind about history and everything else but you can't make up an empty mind. Stock your mind, stock your mind. You might be poor , your shoes might be broken , but your mind is a palace.
Frank McCourt
Image
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
Image
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.
Frank McCourt
Image
Teacher? I never dreamed I could rise so high in the world
Frank McCourt
Image
The English wouldn't give you the steam of their piss.
Frank McCourt
Image
I am teaching. Storytelling is teaching
Frank McCourt
Image
When I act tough they listen politely till the spasm passes. They know.
Frank McCourt
Image
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 I want to write. I don't worry about it. It will emerge. It will insist on being told.
Frank McCourt
Image
The happy childhood is hardly worth your while.
Frank McCourt