Mccourt Quotes & Sayings

There's potential for it being soon. The reality is that there are only 'X' positions available, so it's a matter of luck or timing. They are people positions, and Kim is incredibly qualified. — Jamie McCourt

We are spectators to violence, and therefore are, how well we don't know and make sure we don't know the difference of real violence to that of simulation. — Malachy McCourt

The word is a sound of some sort and that's where the energy comes from. — Malachy McCourt

If ever you're getting a dog, Francis, make sure it's a Buddhist. Good-natured dogs, the Buddhists. Never, never get a Mahommedan. They'll eat you sleeping. Never a Catholic dog. They'll eat you every day including Fridays. — Frank McCourt

I kind of miss the old sleazy Times Square, in a way. And yet I don't mind not being accosted by all sorts of strange people. — Malachy McCourt

To me a saint is a severely edited sinner. That's what I think. — Malachy McCourt

I've seen so many horrible and awful results and consequences of people practicing alcoholism. It's murder, I've seen that. I've seen a lot of suicides, a lot of strange sins. — Malachy McCourt

There's something hostile about the way they enter and leave the room that tells you what they think of you. It could be your imagination and you try to figure out what will bring them over to your side. You try lessons that worked with other classes but even that doesn't help and it's because of that chemistry. They know when they have you on the run. They have instincts that detect your frustrations. — Frank McCourt

Organized religions have all the facets of organized crime, except the compassion of organized crime. — Malachy McCourt

I've been sober for 25. And every day I am very grateful that I don't drink. — Malachy McCourt

I can dig out the old chestnut from George Santayana, that "those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it," but it serves no purpose. It's a hopelessly optimistic quote. We are condemned to repeat the past whether we remember it or not. It is inevitable; just ask Nietzsche (eternal return) or Hegel (history repeats itself) or James McCourt (history repeats itself like hiccups). — Rabih Alameddine

Ooh, aren't we getting solemn, and where did I leave my soapbox? Look — Frank McCourt

He knows how it is to leave Ireland, did it himself and never got over it. You live in Los Angeles with sun and palm trees day in day out and you ask God if there's any chance He could give you one soft rainy Limerick day — Frank McCourt

Live every day as if it's going to be your last, and one day, you'll be right. — Malachy McCourt

I would like to do away with all kind of - all weapons. A dream - totally. Including the bow an arrow. — Malachy McCourt

You never know when you might come home and find Mam sitting by the fire chatting with a woman and a child, strangers. Always a woman and child. Mam finds them wandering the streets and if they ask, Could you spare a few pennies, miss? her heart breaks. She never has money so she invites them home for tea and a bit of fried bread and if it's a bad night she'll let them sleep by the fire on a pile of rags in the corner. The bread she gives them always means less for us and if we complain she says there are always people worse off and we can surely spare a little from what we have. — Frank McCourt

Before the famine, which was in the 1840s, that was an emotional turning point ... There are various documents showing how the Elizabethan English, in particular, were shocked by Irish displays of affection, by the way women acted toward strangers, walking up and putting their arms around them and kissing them right full on the mouth. — Frank McCourt

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

In Limerick, a family that was dysfunctional was one who could afford to drink but didn't. — Malachy McCourt

I see the way I look upon organized religion, I was a victim of that of mythology, and of cruelty, and all the absurd stuff. — Malachy McCourt

he'll make Catholics of us, — Frank McCourt

I'm an alcoholic, recovering. And I used to smoke cigarettes, and I was a philanderer and I, wouldn't call myself good. — Malachy McCourt

That's one part of oppression is to make sure you are a shameful, shamed human being. That takes care of the past. — Malachy McCourt

You might be poor, your shoes might be broken, but your mind is a palace. — 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

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

Through journal writing, you'll discover how to get more benefit from everything that you've experienced. In the process, you'll discover that what you've learned from being a survivor has enriched your life beyond anything you've ever imagined. — Frank McCourt

You feel a sense of urgency, especially at my advanced age, when you're staring into the grave. — Frank McCourt

I am teaching. Storytelling is teaching. — Frank McCourt

Sing your song. Dance your dance. Tell your tale. — Frank McCourt

This is the place for me where every single dream I ever had came to fruition and I love it dearly. I love ya, New York. — Malachy McCourt

Here I am looking at my lovely ten-year-old daughter, Maggie, in her white dress, singing Protestant hymns with the choir at the Plymouth Church of the Brethren when I should be at Mass praying for the repose of the soul of my mother, Angela McCourt, mother of seven, believer, sinner, though when I contemplate her seventy-three years on this earth I can't believe the Lord God Almighty on His throne would even dream of consigning her to the flames. A God like that wouldn't deserve the time of day. — Frank McCourt

The first item on a spiritual agenda is that I am not what I do, that I am what I am, and therefore I am a walking miracle, on a daily basis. — Malachy McCourt

Alcoholism is a dread, an awful, and fatal disease. — Malachy McCourt

If you have one foot in the past and one foot in the future, you're pissing on the present. — Malachy McCourt

Her mother was a streetwalking flaghopper and her father escaped from a lunatic asylum with bunions on his balls and warts on his wank. There is laughing along the bench and Miss Barry calls to us, I warned ye against the laughing. Mackey, what is it you're prattling about over there? I said we'd all be better off out in the fresh air on this fine day delivering telegrams, Miss Barry. I'm sure you did, Mackey. Your mouth is a lavatory. Did you hear me? I did, Miss Barry. You have been heard on the stairs, Mackey. Yes, Miss Barry. Shut up, Mackey. I will, Miss Barry. Not another word, Mackey. No, Miss Barry. I said shut up, Mackey. All right, Miss Barry. That's the end of it, Mackey. Don't try me. I won't, Miss Barry. Mother o' God give me patience. Yes, Miss Barry. Take the last word, Mackey. Take it, take it, take it. I will, Miss Barry. — Frank McCourt

There's so much absurdity. Poverty is so absurd. — Frank McCourt

I felt so happy I could barely stay in my skin — Frank McCourt

He drinks his stout and laughs that there's nothing like a great bloody steak of a Friday night and if that's the worst sin he ever commits he'll float to heaven body and soul, ha ha ha. — Frank McCourt

Being a kid myself, I loved playing and I loved playing with words, and making up things and riddles and songs and not afraid of being silly in public. — Malachy McCourt

Teaching is bringing the news. — Frank McCourt

Corporations can deduct their planes, all their office expenses, their machinery, their computers and Teleprompters and whatever else they have. They can deduct their yachts, they can deduct their limousines, their planes, everything. — Malachy McCourt

The sky is the limit. You never have the same experience twice. — Frank McCourt

Andy says, I don't understand how they can give loans to people who want to spend two weeks lying on the sand at the goddam Jersey shore and then turn down a woman with three kids hanging on by her fingernails. — Frank McCourt

The boys from Staten Island would fill more body bags than Stuyvesant could ever imagine. Mechanics and plumbers had to fight while college students shook indignant fists, fornicated in the fields of Woodstock and sat in. — Frank McCourt

I must congratulate myself, in passing, for never having lost the ability to examine my conscience, never having lost the gift of finding myself wanting & defective. Why fear the criticism of others when you, yourself, are first out of the critical gate? If self-denigration is the race I am the winner, even before the starting gun. Collect the bets. — Frank McCourt

To enter a room is to move from one environment to another and that, for the teenager, can be traumatic. There be dragons, daily horrors from acne to zit. — Frank McCourt

I am full of theories that are based on a very liquid foundation, because I used to be a drinker. — Malachy McCourt

Keep scribbling! Something will happen. — Frank McCourt

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

To lose one parent is a tragedy, to lose both is utter carelessness. — Malachy McCourt

There seems to be less obvious corruption in city government and New York politicians, they aren't Republican or Democrat, they're New Yorkers. — Malachy McCourt

After a full belly all is poetry. — Frank McCourt

Never make any reference to the other person's family. "You're just like your - " because that is out, completely. — Malachy McCourt

To be Irish today is the abandonment of shame and the younger people are moving it out and they're moving the fear away. They're not afraid, they're adventurous. — Malachy McCourt

When I act tough they listen politely till the spasm passes. They know. — 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 was not a good father in my first marriage. Although there are ways of deserting the family without leaving physically, I was deserted in my head. I was always out, always in the saloons, always drinking, always messing about. — Malachy McCourt

Do whatever you want because that's not what you are. That's what you do for the moment. — Malachy McCourt

I stay in the present, so I don't know about the future. — Malachy McCourt

Kenneth Tynan once said that the only people who can do Russian drama, outside of the Russians themselves, are the Irish. I presume that's because we are somewhat manic in the mood department. It's no bother to soar from the darkest depths to the mountaintops of delight, with the heart borne by all of that which is alive and singing. It's even less bother to swan-dive into the pits of despair and total hopelessness, with the realization that it's no use being Irish unless you know the world is eventually going to break your heart. — Malachy McCourt

It was a long time ago: 'Angela's Ashes' by Frank McCourt. It was a great story that was lasting, and I loved it so much. I also love Nora Ephron. I gobble up everything she writes. Also, I love Anthony Bourdain, very irreverent and funny. — Isabel Gillies

I am for who i was in the beginning but now is present and i exist in the future. — Frank McCourt

When I'm writing, I thoroughly enjoy it. It just goes on. — Malachy McCourt

That's my punishment in hell, shoveling horseshit. — Malachy McCourt

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

Just let them sit in the goddam sun. But the world won't let them because there's nothing more dangerous than letting old farts sit in the sun. They might be thinking. Same thing with kids. Keep 'em busy or they might start thinking. — Frank McCourt

A job is death without dignity. — Frank McCourt

A lie to me is a dream that might come true. — Malachy McCourt

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

That's what he disliked about certain artists and writers. They interfered and pointed to everything as if you couldn't see it or read for yourself. — Frank McCourt

For many writers, the journal is their opportunity to be honest with them- selves - the greatest test of all. — Frank McCourt

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

Inertia is, perhaps, the single most powerful stumbling block to writing. It takes energy, courage, patience, and commitment to keep writing in your journal. It's no small thing to open doors, let down barriers, enter sealed rooms, and walk obscure avenues of memory that haven't been traveled in years - or perhaps ever been traveled. — Frank McCourt

I think I settled on the title before I ever wrote the book. — Frank McCourt

In the high school classroom you are a drill sergent, a rabbi, a shoulder to cry on, a disciplinarian, a singer, a low-level scholar, a clerk, a referee, a clown, a counselor, a dress-code enforcer, a conductor, an apologist, a philosopher, a collaborator, a tap dancer, a politician, a therapist, a fool, a traffic cop, a priest, a mother-father-brother-sister-uncle-aunt, a bookeeper, a critic, a psychologist, the last straw. — Frank McCourt

With Angela drawn to the hangdog look and Malachy lonely after three months in jail, there was bound to be a knee-trmbler.
A knee-trmbler is the act itself done up against a wall, man and woman up on their toes, straining so hard their knees tremble with the excitement that's in it. — 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 emerge. It will insist on being told. — Frank McCourt

If 'tis a sin, I don't give a Fiddler's fart! — Frank McCourt

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

I was sick of my miserable childhood, too, the way it followed me across the Atlantic and kept nagging at me to be made public. — Frank McCourt

Whenever I'm broadcasting, I like it. When I'm broadcasting I can't wait to hear what I say. — Malachy McCourt

There's no recovery from alcoholism, it is an incurable disease. And it also is a disease that tells you, you don't have a disease. — Malachy McCourt

They don't allow a dying on the highway. No Passing. They give you a ticket if you die on the highway. — Malachy McCourt

The main thing I am interested in is my experience as a teacher. — Frank McCourt

In New York, with Prohibition in full swing, he thought he had died and gone o hell for his sins. Then he discovered speakeasies and he rejoiced. — Frank McCourt

There were a few people who got jobs in Limerick, a big barrel on wheels, and it was a barrel that went back and forth, and a shovel and a broom. So, they went around shoveling the horseshit into this barrel. So, you got that job when you were around 15, and then you got to retire at the age of 65, with a pension. A small pension. So that would be 50 years of shoveling horseshit. And I was advised very seriously that I should get that job. — Malachy McCourt

I don't absolve my father completely of his responsibility for what he did to us I feel compassion, maybe. He had his demons. But I still can't understand how a man can walk away from children. And leave them to starve, as we nearly did, if it wasn't for my mother going out and begging. — Frank McCourt

The death of a famous person is different from the death of a loved one, whether it is Michael Jackson, Frank McCourt, or Walter Cronkite. We didn't know any of them personally, and yet, we experience a sense of loss. — Madeleine M. Kunin

I've avoided work all my life, you see. So, I'm like a bee. I go from flower to flower. — Malachy McCourt

Women stand with their arms folded chatting. They don't sit because all they do is stay at home, take care of the children, clean the house and cook a bit and the men need the chairs. The men sit because they are worn out from walking to the Labour Exchange every morning to sign for the dole, discussing the world's pro less and wondering what to do with the rest of the day. — Frank McCourt

The Supreme Court gives corporations the same rights as a human being. It's absurd. You can't do that. — Malachy McCourt

Teacher? I never dreamed I could rise so high in the world — Frank McCourt

Fiorito has all the right stuff. His splendid memoir about his relationship with his dying father belongs on that small shelf with Philip Roth's Patrimony and Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes. — Mordecai Richler

Resentment is like swallowing poison and waiting for the other person to die. - MALACHY MCCOURT — Katherine Crowley

I had the taste of the alcohol since I was 11. It allowed me to be clever, charming and to behave outrageously. Acting also allowed me not to be me. So I could indulge every fantasy in this paradise of America. — Malachy McCourt

When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I survived at all. It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while. Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood. — Frank McCourt

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

Bless me, Father, for I have sinned, it's been a minute since my last confession. — Frank McCourt

Somebody once said that the Irish derived the greatest benefit from the English language. They court it like a beautiful woman. They make it bray with donkey laughter, they fling it at the sky like paint pots full of rainbow colors. — Malachy McCourt