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" 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
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" Just luxuriate in a certain memory, and the details will come. It's like a magnet attracting steel filings. "
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" People want real-life stories. "
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" I can't go too much into my domestic life because there are ex-wives ready to do me in. "
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" I think there are two cities in the world - New York and Rome. "
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" My mother had had six children in five and a half years, and three of them died in that time. "
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" The main thing I am interested in is my experience as a teacher. "
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" We were below welfare. We begged from people on welfare. My father tried to repair our shoes with pieces of bicycle tires. "
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" My childhood here... was very limited. So it was a long, long time before I actually went out to Brooklyn. "
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" People who think I have insulted Ireland or Limerick or my family have not read the book! "
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" Early in my teaching days, the kids asked me the meaning of a poem. I replied, 'I don't know any more than you do. I have ideas. What are your ideas?' I realized then that we're all in the same boat. What does anybody know? "
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Meaning
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" I didn't have to struggle at all to get an agent and a publisher. Everything fell into my lap. "
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Everything
Agent
Struggle
" 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
Saying
Hell
Newspaper
" There's so much absurdity. Poverty is so absurd. "
Frank McCourt
Absurdity
Absurd
Poverty
" I had no accomplishments except surviving. But that isn't enough in the community where I came from, because everybody was doing it. So I wasn't prepared for America, where everybody is glowing with good teeth and good clothes and food. "
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America
Good
Food
" I never really fit in anywhere. "
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Anywhere
Really
Never
" Ireland, once you live there, you're seduced by it. "
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Ireland
Once
Seduced
" I've had experiences on both sides of the ocean and various classrooms and bedrooms around New York. "
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New York
Ocean
Sides
" In public schools, classes are bloated - it's ridiculous. "
Frank McCourt
Ridiculous
Public Schools
Public
" I was ashamed of it, of the poverty I came from. "
Frank McCourt
I Came
Poverty
Came
" I'm a late bloomer. "
Frank McCourt
Bloomer
Late Bloomer
Late
" When I look back on my childhood, I wonder how I survived at all. "
Frank McCourt
Look
I Wonder
Back
" Everyone has a story to tell. All you have to do is write it. But it's not that easy. "
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Easy
Write
Tell
" 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
" 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
" 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. "
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You
Go
Great
" I had moments with my father that were exquisite - the stories he told me about Cuchulain, the mythological Irish warrior, are still magical to me. "
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Moments
Father
Warrior
" I had never attended high school, but I was fairly well read. "
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High School
School
Well
" 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. "
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Snake
Stand
Me
" I think I settled on the title before I ever wrote the book. "
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I Think
Book
Title
" Teachers have a million stories, but nobody consults them. "
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Them
Million
Stories