Irish - Author | August 19, 1930 - July 19, 2009
The happy childhood is hardly worth your while.
Frank McCourt
ChildhoodHappyWorthHappy Childhood
Worse than the ordinary, miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood.
ChildhoodIrishMiserableWorseThan
That's what kept us going - a sense of absurdity, rather than humor.
HumorUsGoingAbsurditySenseThan
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.
TelevisionNothingWayTopRadio
Way back in my mid-20s, I started making notes. I would just jot things down: lists of street names, songs, peculiar turns of speech, jokes, whatever.
SpeechBackDownStreetWayJokes
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.
MeMovingYouBodyYour BodyBoston
I just have to proceed as usual. No matter what happens, nothing helps with the writing of the next book.
WritingBookNothingMatterNext
You feel a sense of urgency, especially at my advanced age, when you're staring into the grave.
AgeFeelYouUrgencyStaringSense
First of all there is always that artistic challenge of creating something. Or the particular experience to take slum life in that period and make something out of it in the form of a book. And then I felt some kind of responsibility to my family.
LifeFamilyChallengeResponsibility
My childhood here... was very limited. So it was a long, long time before I actually went out to Brooklyn.
TimeChildhoodLongBrooklynOut
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.
YouSexKnowTouchAlwaysDancing
There's so much absurdity. Poverty is so absurd.
PovertyAbsurdityAbsurdMuch
Copyright © 2024 QuotesDict Frank McCourt quotes