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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

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

More quotes by 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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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
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The English wouldn't give you the steam of their piss.
Frank McCourt
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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
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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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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
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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
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I am teaching. Storytelling is teaching
Frank McCourt
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I'm more interested in writing than in performing.
Frank McCourt
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Sing your song. Dance your dance. Tell your tale.
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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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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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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The happy childhood is hardly worth your while.
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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A mother's love is a blessing No matter where you roam. Keep her while you have her, You'll miss her when she's gone -- Angela's Ashes.
Frank McCourt
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The sky is the limit. You never have the same experience twice.
Frank McCourt
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Where did I get the nerve to think I could handle American teenagers? Ignorance. That's where I got the nerve.
Frank McCourt
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The main thing I am interested in is my experience as a teacher.
Frank McCourt