Frank McCourt

People who think I have insulted Ireland or Limerick or my family have not read the book! ”

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

The happy childhood is hardly worth your while. ”

If ever you are to be visited by the Holy Ghost, you should make certain you're sitting beside a fireman. ”

And, of course, they've always condemned dancing. You know, you might touch a member of the opposite sex. And you might get excited and you might do something natural. ”

I loved reading and writing, and teaching was the most exalted profession I could imagine. ”

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. ”

Kids all want to look cool, as if knowledge is a great burden, but they're always looking around. They remember. ”

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

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. ”