Frank McCourt Quotes

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Frank McCourt

Profession : Author

Birth : August 19, 1930

I knew I had to find my own way of teaching.

Frank McCourt

I thought everything would be different in America. It wasn't.

Frank McCourt

I hated school in Ireland.

Frank McCourt

You don't have to go fight bulls in Spain like Hemingway to write something great, or go off to war. It's right under your nose.

Frank McCourt

Teachers have a million stories, but nobody consults them.

Frank McCourt

I couldn't even pick up the newspaper without saying, 'This is a fine piece of writing. I wish to hell I could write like this.'

Frank McCourt

I'm always a great student of writers' work habits. Balzac sat at his desk dressed in a monk's robe, and he always had to have a rotten apple on his desk. The smell of the apple inspired him somehow.

Frank McCourt

When I read about Joyce, I realised that there was no eight-till-one in his life: it was 24 hours a day for him.

Frank McCourt

The day I write my last word will be the day that I feel free.

Frank McCourt

If you have a class of 35 children, and they're all smiling, and there's one little bastard, and he's just staring at you as if to say 'Show me', then he's the one you think about going home on the train.

Frank McCourt

Sure, I went through my 'J'accuse' phase. I was so angry for so long, I could hardly have a conversation without getting into an argument. And it was only when I felt I could finally distance myself from my past that I began to write about what happened - not just to me, but to lots of young people. I think my story is a cautionary tale.

Frank McCourt

I don't see myself as either Irish or American, I'm a New Yorker.

Frank McCourt

I wanted to avoid all that literary stuff. I didn't want the self pity of 'The Portrait,' all the moaning and the whingeing. I'm not knocking Joyce: we all owe him a debt. He's the one who made so much possible.

Frank McCourt

I think that's why you see so many Americans in Dublin look so sad: they are looking for the door through which they can begin to understand this place. I tell them, 'Go to the races.' I think it's the best place to start understanding the Irish.

Frank McCourt

People want real-life stories.

Frank McCourt

On the last day of my teaching career, I was sitting in my apartment, having a glass of wine, thinking I'm glad I did it, that I had been somehow useful, that I had learned something.

Frank McCourt

You're beginning to hear the tale of the common man and woman rather than the traditional memoir about the generals who just finished the war or the politicians who just rendered glorious service to the country.

Frank McCourt

Something happened when the memoirs of so-called ordinary people, like myself, suddenly hit the bestseller list.

Frank McCourt

Autobiography should be more stringent. It should adhere more to the standards of journalism - assuming that journalism has the truth. The memoir gives you more scope, is more poetic, and allows you to play around with your own life.

Frank McCourt