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

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" 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. "

" You look at passers-by in Rome and think, 'Do they know what they have here?' You can say the same about Philadelphia. Do people know what went on here? "

" I never expected to write a book about a slum in Ireland that was going to catapult me, as they say, into some kind of - onto the best seller list. "

" I was ashamed of it, of the poverty I came from. "

" Scatter my ashes on the Shannon. "

" 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. "

" My father and mother should have stayed in New York, where they met and married and where I was born. "

" We were below welfare. We begged from people on welfare. My father tried to repair our shoes with pieces of bicycle tires. "

" Just luxuriate in a certain memory, and the details will come. It's like a magnet attracting steel filings. "

" The part of Limerick we lived in is Georgian, you know, those Georgian houses. You see them in pictures of Dublin. "

" At 66, you're supposed to die or get hemorrhoids. "

" Worse than the ordinary, miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood. "

" St. Patrick, bringing the religion to Ireland, this is what we should celebrate. "

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

" The uncluttered life is the key to a good memory. "

" In public schools, classes are bloated - it's ridiculous. "

" Every life is a mystery. There is nobody whose life is normal and boring. "

" I was a houseman, the lowest. I was just above - in the hierarchy of jobs, I was just above the Puerto Rican dishwashers - just above, so I felt superior to them. "

" I think there are two cities in the world - New York and Rome. "

" The happy childhood is hardly worth your while. "

Happy Childhood

" One day a week should be set aside for field trips. "

" When I came to America, I dreamed bigger dreams. "

" 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. "

" When I got out of the army, I had the G.I. Bill. Since I had no high school education or anything like that, I came to NYU, and they took a chance on me and let me in. "

" We had nothing, no television, no radio, nothing to get in the way. We read by the streetlight at the top of the lane, and we acted out the stories. "

" There were a number of houses. When we first arrived in Limerick, it was a one-room affair with most of it taken up with a bed. "

" If I have a cause, it's the cause of the teacher. "

" 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.' "

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

" 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. "