Mam was always saying we had a simple diet: tea and bread, bread and tea, a liquid and a solid, a balanced diet – what more do you need? Nobody got fat. – Frank McCourt
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
I was just dreaming, and if, if I’d written the book and nobody wanted it, I would have put it in the drawer and said, ‘Well, I did that.’ – Frank McCourt
When I first went up to see my editor, I was with my agent, and my editor said, ‘Well, what have you been doing all these years?’ And my agent said, ‘He’s been in recovery. From his childhood.’ – Frank McCourt
My mother had had six children in five and a half years, and three of them died in that time. – Frank McCourt
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
I’ve had experiences on both sides of the ocean and various classrooms and bedrooms around New York. – Frank McCourt
I became a teacher all right. I wanted to become a teacher because I had a misconception about it. I didn’t know that I’d be going into – when I first became a high school teacher in New York, that I’d be going into a battle zone, and no one prepared me for that. – Frank McCourt
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