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" You feel a sense of urgency, especially at my advanced age, when you're staring into the grave. "
Frank McCourt
Urgency
You
Staring
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" I'm a late bloomer. "
Frank McCourt
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Late Bloomer
Late
" I think there are two cities in the world - New York and Rome. "
Frank McCourt
World
Rome
New
" For some reason, I had a responsibility to my family and the people who lived around me. I felt that I had to convey their dignity - the way they dealt with adversity and poverty - and their good humor. "
Frank McCourt
Adversity
People
Humor
" Everyone has a story to tell. All you have to do is write it. But it's not that easy. "
Frank McCourt
Easy
Write
Tell
" 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. "
Frank McCourt
America
Good
Food
" At 66, you're supposed to die or get hemorrhoids. "
Frank McCourt
Get
You
Supposed
" Ireland, once you live there, you're seduced by it. "
Frank McCourt
Ireland
Once
Seduced
" Certain citizens claimed I had disgraced the fair name of the city of Limerick, that I had attacked the church, that I had despoiled my mother's name, and that if I returned to Limerick, I would surely be found hanging from a lamppost. "
Frank McCourt
Name
Mother
Hanging
" I learned the significance of my own insignificant life. "
Frank McCourt
Insignificant
Own
My Own
" 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
" I knew I had to find my own way of teaching. "
Frank McCourt
Knew
Teaching
Own
" I worked in a number of high schools in New York, and I wound up at Stuyvesant High School, which is known nationally for producing brilliant scientists and mathematicians, but I had writing classes. I thought I was teaching. They thought I was teaching, but I was learning. "
Frank McCourt
New
New York
School
" People want real-life stories. "
Frank McCourt
Stories
People
Real-Life
" I can do no more than tell the truth. "
Frank McCourt
Truth
Than
Tell
" 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
" We don't look at teachers as scholars the way they do in Europe. In Spain you're called a professor if you're a high school teacher, and they pay teachers - they pay teachers in Europe. "
Frank McCourt
Teacher
High School
Look
" I thought everything would be different in America. It wasn't. "
Frank McCourt
Be Different
Thought
Would
" If I have a cause, it's the cause of the teacher. "
Frank McCourt
Teacher
Cause
" I've been writing in notebooks for 40 years or so. "
Frank McCourt
Years
Been
Notebooks
" We've had enough of the generals and movie stars. We want to hear about the ordinary people. "
Frank McCourt
Stars
Enough
Generals
" My childhood here... was very limited. So it was a long, long time before I actually went out to Brooklyn. "
Frank McCourt
Long Time
Time
Childhood
" You sail into the harbor, and Staten Island is on your left, and then you see the Statue of Liberty. This is what everyone in the world has dreams of when they think about New York. And I thought, 'My God, I'm in Heaven. I'll be dancing down Fifth Avenue like Fred Astaire with Ginger Rogers.' "
Frank McCourt
Sail
New York
God
" The main thing I am interested in is my experience as a teacher. "
Frank McCourt
I Am
Experience
Teacher
" There's so much absurdity. Poverty is so absurd. "
Frank McCourt
Absurdity
Absurd
Poverty
" Just luxuriate in a certain memory, and the details will come. It's like a magnet attracting steel filings. "
Frank McCourt
Steel
Details
Just
" St. Patrick, bringing the religion to Ireland, this is what we should celebrate. "
Frank McCourt
Should
Religion
Celebrate
" 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. "
Frank McCourt
Top
Way
Nothing
" It gives me a very keen satisfaction that, after listening to my blather all those years, former students are now seeing that I wrote a book, that I did have it in me. "
Frank McCourt
Book
Listening
Seeing
" 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
" 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
Beginning
Service
Man