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There Were Positive Things About The Church, That Is, In The European Cultural Sense, The Architecture, The Liturgy, The Music, The Art, Such As It Was, The Stations Of The Cross In The Church, The Tradition, And The Atmosphere Of Awe And Mystery In The Mass. The Atmosphere Of Miracle, One Of Mainly Mystery, That's What Fascinates Me.

-Frank McCourt

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There Were Positive Things

Frank McCourt

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There Were Positive Things About The Church, That Is, In The European Cultural Sense, The Architecture, The Liturgy, The Music, The Art, Such As It Was, The Stations Of The Cross In The Church, The Tradition, And The Atmosphere Of Awe And Mystery In The Mass. The Atmosphere Of Miracle, One Of Mainly Mystery, That's What Fascinates Me.

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I Am For Who I Was In The Beginning But Now Is Present And I Exist In The Future.

In The High School Classroom You Are A Drill Sergent, A Rabbi, A Shoulder To Cry On, A Disciplinarian, A Singer, A Low-level Scholar, A Clerk, A Referee, A Clown, A Counselor, A Dress-code Enforcer, A Conductor, An Apologist, A Philosopher, A Collaborator, A Tap Dancer, A Politician, A Therapist, A Fool, A Traffic Cop, A Priest, A Mother-father-brother-sister-uncle-aunt, A Bookeeper, A Critic, A Psychologist, The Last Straw.

If You Were Mean To Your Parents, They'd Give You A Good Belt In The Gob And Send You Flying Across The Room.

I Am Teaching. Storytelling Is Teaching

The Sky Is The Limit. You Never Have The Same Experience Twice.

There Are So Many Ways Of Saying Hi. Hiss It, Trill It, Bark It, Sing It, Bellow It, Laugh It, Cough It. A Simple Stroll In The Hallway Calls For Paragraphs, Sentences In Your Head, Decisions Galore.

I Had To Get Rid Of Any Idea Of Hell Or Any Idea Of The Afterlife. That's What Held Me, Kept Me Down. So Now I Just Have Nothing But Contempt For The Institution Of The Church.

Teacher? I Never Dreamed I Could Rise So High In The World

The Main Thing I Am Interested In Is My Experience As A Teacher.

I Think I Settled On The Title Before I Ever Wrote The Book.

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.

Shakespeare Is Like Mashed Potatoes, You Can Never Get Enough Of Him.

Mashed Potatoes

People Everywhere Brag And Whimper About The Woes Of Their Early Years, But Nothing Can Compare With The Irish Version: The Poverty; The Shiftless Loquacious Father; The Pious Defeated Mother Moaning By The Fire; Pompous Priests; Bullying School Masters; The English And The Terrible Things They Did To Us For Eight Hundred Long Years. Above All -- We Were Wet.

Love Her As In Childhood Through Feeble, Old And Grey. For You’ll Never Miss A Mother’s Love Till She’s Buried Beneath The Clay.

I Don't Believe In Happiness Anyway... It's Too Much Of An American Pastime, This Search For Happiness. Just Forget Happiness And Enjoy Your Misery.

I Asked My Dad What Afflicted Meant And He Said 'sickness Son, And Things That Don't Fit.'

He Says, You Have To Study And Learn So That You Can Make Up Your Own Mind About History And Everything Else But You Can’t Make Up An Empty Mind. Stock Your Mind, Stock Your Mind. It Is Your House Of Treasure And No One In The World Can Interfere With It. If You Won The Irish Sweepstakes And Bought A House That Needed Furniture Would You Fill It With Bits And Pieces Of Rubbish? Your Mind Is Your House And If You Fill It With Rubbish From The Cinemas It Will Rot In Your Head. You Might Be Poor, Your Shoes Might Be Broken, But Your Mind Is A Palace.

It's Not Enough To Be American. You Always Have To Be Something Else, Irish-american, German-american, And You'd Wonder How They'd Get Along If Someone Hadn't Invented The Hyphen

We Never Really Had Any Kind Of A Christmas. This Is One Part Where My Memory Fails Me Completely.

When I Look Back On My Childhood I Wonder How I Survived At All. It Was, Of Course, A Miserable Childhood: The Happy Childhood Is Hardly Worth Your While. Worse Than The Ordinary Miserable Childhood Is The Miserable Irish Childhood, And Worse Yet Is The Miserable Irish Catholic Childhood.

I Don't Absolve My Father Completely Of His Responsibility For What He Did To Us I Feel Compassion, Maybe. He Had His Demons. But I Still Can't Understand How A Man Can Walk Away From Children. And Leave Them To Starve, As We Nearly Did, If It Wasn't For My Mother Going Out And Begging.

Before The Famine, Which Was In The 1840s, That Was An Emotional Turning Point... There Are Various Documents Showing How The Elizabethan English, In Particular, Were Shocked By Irish Displays Of Affection, By The Way Women Acted Toward Strangers, Walking Up And Putting Their Arms Around Them And Kissing Them Right Full On The Mouth.

There's Nothing Sillier In The World Than A Teacher Telling You Don't Do It After You Already Did It.

I Admire Certain Priests And Nuns Who Go Off On Their Own And Do God's Work On Their Own, Who Help In The Ghettos, But As Far As The Institution Of The Church Is Concerned, I Think It Is Despicable.

My Childhood Here... Was Very Limited. So It Was A Long, Long Time Before I Actually Went Out To Brooklyn.

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Just Let Them Sit In The Goddam Sun. But The World Won't Let Them Because There's Nothing More Dangerous Than Letting Old Farts Sit In The Sun. They Might Be Thinking. Same Thing With Kids. Keep 'em Busy Or They Might Start Thinking.

I Told Her Tea Bags Were Just A Convenience For People With Busy Lives And She Said No One Is So Busy They Can't Take Time To Make A Decent Cup Of Tea And If You Are That Busy You Don't Deserve A Decent Cup Of Tea For What Is It All About Anyway? Are We Put Into This World To Be Busy Or To Chat Over A Nice Cup Of Tea?

I Can't Go Too Much Into My Domestic Life Because There Are Ex-wives Ready To Do Me In.

I Am Not Living The American Dream; I Am Living The American Fantasy.

Oh, God Above, If Heaven Has A Taste It Must Be An Egg With Butter And Salt, And After The Egg Is There Anything In The World Lovelier Than Fresh Warm Bread And A Mug Of Sweet Golden Tea?

I Just Have To Proceed As Usual. No Matter What Happens, Nothing Helps With The Writing Of The Next Book.

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The Master Says It's A Glorious Thing To Die For The Faith And Dad Says It's A Glorious Thing To Die For Ireland And I Wonder If There's Anyone In The World Who Would Like Us To Live. My Brothers Are Dead And My Sister Is Dead And I Wonder If They Died For Ireland Or For The Faith. Dad Says They Were Too Young To Die For Anything. Mam Says It Was Disease And Starvation And Him Never Having A Job. Dad Says, Och, Angela, Puts On His Cap, And Goes For A Long Walk.

Keep Scribbling! Something Will Happen.

You Have To Give Yourself Credit, Not Too Much Because That Would Be Bragging.

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Sing Your Song. Dance Your Dance. Tell Your Tale.

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They Can Afford To Smile Because They All Have Teeth So Dazzling If They Dropped Them In The Snow They'd Be Lost Forever.

Stock Your Mind. It Is Your House Of Treasure And No One In The World Can Interfere With It.

When I Act Tough They Listen Politely Till The Spasm Passes. They Know.

After A Full Belly All Is Poetry.

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I Say, Billy, What’s The Use In Playing Croquet When You’re Doomed? He Says, Frankie, What’s The Use Of Not Playing Croquet When You’re Doomed?

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