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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

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

More quotes by Frank McCourt

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Bless me, Father, for I have sinned, it's been a minute since my last confession.
Frank McCourt
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When I act tough they listen politely till the spasm passes. They know.
Frank McCourt
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I asked my dad what afflicted meant and he said 'Sickness son, and things that don't fit.'
Frank McCourt
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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 clay.
Frank McCourt
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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.
Frank McCourt
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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
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The main thing I am interested in is my experience as a teacher.
Frank McCourt
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My childhood here... was very limited. So it was a long, long time before I actually went out to Brooklyn.
Frank McCourt
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I had no accomplishments except surviving. But that isn't enough in the community where I came from, because everybody was doing it. So I wasn't prepared for America, where everybody is glowing with good teeth and good clothes and food.
Frank McCourt
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There's nothing sillier in the world than a teacher telling you don't do it after you already did it.
Frank McCourt
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I am teaching. Storytelling is teaching
Frank McCourt
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The English wouldn't give you the steam of their piss.
Frank McCourt
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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
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Shakespeare is like mashed potatoes, you can never get enough of him.
Frank McCourt
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Your mind is a treasure house that you should stock well and it's the one part of you the world can't interfere with.
Frank McCourt
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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
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Teacher? I never dreamed I could rise so high in the world
Frank McCourt
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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.
Frank McCourt
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The happy childhood is hardly worth your while.
Frank McCourt
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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