Quotes by Frank McCourt

About Frank McCourt:

Francis "Frank" McCourt was an Irish-American teacher and writer. He won a Pulitzer Prize for his novel Angela's Ashes, a tragicomic memoir of the misery and squalor of his childhood.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

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

Happiness is hard to recall. Its just a glow.

Frank McCourt

Actually, my mother and Alfie came for three weeks' Christmas vacation and stayed for 21 years. I guess my mother never went back because she was lonely.

Frank McCourt

We never really had any kind of a Christmas. This is one part where my memory fails me completely.

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 the ghettos, but as far as the institution of the church is concerned, I think it is despicable.

Frank McCourt

I can't go too much into my domestic life because there are ex-wives ready to do me in.

Frank McCourt

I just have to proceed as usual. No matter what happens, nothing helps with the writing of the next book.

Frank McCourt

I've been writing in notebooks for 40 years or so.

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 excited and you might do something natural.

Frank McCourt

There's so much absurdity. Poverty is so absurd.

Frank McCourt

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

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

I'm more interested in writing than in performing.

Frank McCourt

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

Frank McCourt

In America, doctors, lawyers, generals, actors, television people and politicians are admired and rewarded. Not teachers. Teaching is the downstairs maid of professions. Teachers are told to use the service door or go round the back. They are congrat...

Frank McCourt

After a full belly all is poetry.

Frank McCourt

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 ...

Frank McCourt

Stock your mind. It is your house of treasure and no one in the world can interfere with it.

Frank McCourt

My childhood here... was very limited. So it was a long, long time before I actually went out to Brooklyn.

Frank McCourt

He came to the States in 1963, I think with a view to making up with my mother, but that didn't work. He came for three weeks, and drank his way all over Brooklyn. And went back... I went to his funeral in Belfast.

Frank McCourt

Author Bio

  • NameFrank McCourt
  • DescriptionIrish-American teacher and Pulitzer Prize–winning writer
  • BornAugust 19, 1930
  • DiedJuly 19, 2009
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionTeacher; Writer; Autobiographer
  • AwardsRome Prize; Pulitzer Prize For Biography Or Autobiography