Quote

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 me to just crawl out of it, like a snake leaving his skin behind.

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
Process
James
Back
Slow
Look
Skin
Joyce
Looks
Skins
Edifice
Whole
Leaving
Crawl
Like
Behinds
Snake
Behind
Intellectuals
Stand
Snakes

More quotes by 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
Sing your song. Dance your dance. Tell your tale.
Frank McCourt
Image
I'm more interested in writing than in performing.
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
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
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
Image
Keep scribbling! Something will happen.
Frank McCourt
Image
There are so many ways of saying Hi. Hiss it, trill it, bark it, sing it, bellow it, laugh it, cough it. A simple stroll in the hallway calls for paragraphs, sentences in your head, decisions galore.
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
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
Image
The main thing I am interested in is my experience as a teacher.
Frank McCourt
Image
I asked my dad what afflicted meant and he said 'Sickness son, and things that don't fit.'
Frank McCourt
Image
It’s lovely to know that the world can’t interfere with the inside of your head.
Frank McCourt
Image
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
Image
Bless me, Father, for I have sinned, it's been a minute since my last confession.
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
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
Image
Where did I get the nerve to think I could handle American teenagers? Ignorance. That's where I got the nerve.
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
My childhood here... was very limited. So it was a long, long time before I actually went out to Brooklyn.
Frank McCourt