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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
Snake
Stand
Me
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" 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
Church
Admire
Help
" There's nothing in the world like getting up in front of a high-school classroom in New York City. They won't give you a break if you don't hold them. There's no escape. "
Frank McCourt
New York
City
World
" 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. "
Frank McCourt
Superior
Hierarchy
Above
" When I look back on my childhood, I wonder how I survived at all. "
Frank McCourt
Look
I Wonder
Back
" 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
Business
More
Mistake
" A lot of people say writers start losing their powers after 60 or 65. But I look at the best-seller list and see a book by that 14-year-old gymnast, Dominique Moceanu, and I think, 'Now, what's she going to tell the world? And these 25-year-old rock stars, what are they going to tell the world?' "
Frank McCourt
Think
Stars
Losing
" You feel a sense of urgency, especially at my advanced age, when you're staring into the grave. "
Frank McCourt
Urgency
You
Staring
" We were supposed to stay over in Boston, but when Scribners heard I'd won the Pulitzer, they told me to get on a plane - that Katie Couric wanted my body. And when Katie Couric wants your body, you get moving right away. "
Frank McCourt
Body
Boston
Right
" There's so much absurdity. Poverty is so absurd. "
Frank McCourt
Absurdity
Absurd
Poverty
" The part of Limerick we lived in is Georgian, you know, those Georgian houses. You see them in pictures of Dublin. "
Frank McCourt
Houses
Know
Lived
" When I was a kid, I was a pretty good runner, and there was nothing like winning a race. "
Frank McCourt
Good
Nothing
Like
" Scatter my ashes on the Shannon. "
Frank McCourt
Scatter
Ashes
" People want real-life stories. "
Frank McCourt
Stories
People
Real-Life
" I learned the significance of my own insignificant life. "
Frank McCourt
Insignificant
Own
My Own
" I don't see myself as either Irish or American, I'm a New Yorker. "
Frank McCourt
American
Irish
Myself
" We were below welfare. We begged from people on welfare. My father tried to repair our shoes with pieces of bicycle tires. "
Frank McCourt
Shoes
Bicycle
Father
" 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. "
Frank McCourt
School
Chance
Education
" O'Casey was writing about people in the streets and his mother and dying babies and poverty. So that astounded me because I thought you could only write about English matters. "
Frank McCourt
People
Thought
Writing
" Some, like Mother Teresa, are born with a gene to help the poor, and some are born with a gene to write. I was born with a gene to tell my story, and I just had to. "
Frank McCourt
Tell
Born
Help
" Kids all want to look cool, as if knowledge is a great burden, but they're always looking around. They remember. "
Frank McCourt
Great
Cool
Looking
" 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
Best
Start
Sad
" The sky is the limit. You never have the same experience twice. "
Frank McCourt
Experience
Limit
Never
" I've been writing in notebooks for 40 years or so. "
Frank McCourt
Years
Been
Notebooks
" 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
Mother
Christmas
She
" If I have a cause, it's the cause of the teacher. "
Frank McCourt
Teacher
Cause
" 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
Past
Think
People
" I had never attended high school, but I was fairly well read. "
Frank McCourt
High School
School
Well
" I'm more interested in writing than in performing. "
Frank McCourt
Interested
More
Performing
" 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
Own
Life
Journalism
" When I came to America, I dreamed bigger dreams. "
Frank McCourt
Dreams
America
Bigger