Quotes from 'Tis A Memoir

“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”
― Frank McCourt, quote from 'Tis A Memoir

“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?”
― Frank McCourt, quote from 'Tis A Memoir

“...you, the privileged, the chosen, the pampered, with nothing to do but go to school, hang out, do a little studying, go to college, get into a money-making racket, grow into your fat forties, still whining, still complaining, when there are millions around the world who'd offer fingers and toes to be in your seats, nicely clothed, well fed, with the world by the balls.”
― Frank McCourt, quote from 'Tis A Memoir

“I can't go back. The past won't go away in this family...”
― Frank McCourt, quote from 'Tis A Memoir

“Andy says, I don't understand how they can give loans to people who want to spend two weeks lying on the sand at the goddam Jersey shore and then turn down a woman with three kids hanging on by her fingernails.”
― Frank McCourt, quote from 'Tis A Memoir

“They can afford to smile because they all have teeth so dazzling if they dropped them in the snow they'd be lost forever.”
― Frank McCourt, quote from 'Tis A Memoir

“Your mind is a treasure house that you should stock well and it’s the one part of you the world can’t interfere with.”
― Frank McCourt, quote from 'Tis A Memoir

“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 in this world to be busy or to chat over a nice cup of tea?”
― Frank McCourt, quote from 'Tis A Memoir

“I'm in New York, land of the free and home of the brave, but I'm supposed to behave as if I were in Limerick at all times.”
― Frank McCourt, quote from 'Tis A Memoir

“I felt so happy I could barely stay in my skin”
― Frank McCourt, quote from 'Tis A Memoir

“Here I am looking at my lovely ten-year-old daughter, Maggie, in her white dress, singing Protestant hymns with the choir at the Plymouth Church of the Brethren when I should be at Mass praying for the repose of the soul of my mother, Angela McCourt, mother of seven, believer, sinner, though when I contemplate her seventy-three years on this earth I can’t believe the Lord God Almighty on His throne would even dream of consigning her to the flames. A God like that wouldn’t deserve the time of day.”
― Frank McCourt, quote from 'Tis A Memoir

“But I don't know how I'll ever get a college degree and rise in the world with no high school diploma and eyes like piss holes in the snow, as everyone tells me.”
― Frank McCourt, quote from 'Tis A Memoir

“The boys from Staten Island would fill more body bags than Stuyvesant could ever imagine. Mechanics and plumbers had to fight while college students shook indignant fists, fornicated in the fields of Woodstock and sat in.”
― Frank McCourt, quote from 'Tis A Memoir

“Menen Horacen luo ja puristan hänenkin kättään. En pysty sanomaan mitään, koska tunnen jollakin merkillisellä tavalla rakastavani häntä ja toivon että hän olisi isäni, eikä silloin ole helppo puhua. Hän ei sano mitään koska tietää hyvin että tällaisina hetkinä sanoilla ei ole merkitystä. Hän vain taputtaa minua olalle, ja viimeinen mitä Port Warehousesissa kuulen on Eddie Lynchin ääni kun hän sanoo miehille takaisin töihin siitä, senkin vetelä mulkkulauma.”
― Frank McCourt, quote from 'Tis A Memoir

“Dolores asuu talossa, jonka pienellä etupihalla on neitsyt Marian patsas ja vaaleanpunainen lintupatsas. Seisomme pienen rautaportin luona ja minä en oikein tiedä pitäisikö nyt suudella häntä jolloin hän saattaisi innostua niin että saattaisimme hiippailla jonkin puun taakse kiihotusta harjoittamaan, mutta samassa kuuluu sisältä karjaisu Jumalauta, Dolores, äkkiä sisään sieltä, jo on otsaa kun tuolla lailla perkele pikkutunneilla kotiin lampsitaan, ja sano sille perkeleen turvenuijalle että ottaa jalat alleen ja juoksee henkensä edestä, ja Dolores sanoo vain oi ja juoksee sisään.”
― Frank McCourt, quote from 'Tis A Memoir

“When the dark clouds flutter like bats in my head I wish I could open a window and release them.”
― Frank McCourt, quote from 'Tis A Memoir

“Haloo, kuuluuko? Minulla on tässä munakello päällä ja teillä on nyt kolme minuuttia aikaa kertoa miten minä saan nuo perkeleen neiti suo anteeksi pulut kuriin etteivät ne paneskele kaiken aikaa minun ilmastointilaitteeni päällä tuolla ikkunan ulkopuolella. Kaiken päivää saa kuunnella niiden huhuhuuta niin että hulluksi meinaa tulla ja sitten ne paskantavat ikkunat umpeen. Ai ette pysty heti sanomaan? Pitää selvittää ensin? Mitä siinä on selvittämistä? Pulut rietastelevat minun ilmastointilaitteellani ja teidän pitää ruveta selvittämään. Valitan, munakello sanoo että kolme minuuttia on kulunut. Hyvästi.”
― Frank McCourt, quote from 'Tis A Memoir

“For once, mam, my bladder isn't near my eye and why isn't it?”
― Frank McCourt, quote from 'Tis A Memoir

“I'm sitting up in the bed with my knees pulled to my chest and there are tears that won't come to my eyes but beat instead like a small sea around my heart.”
― Frank McCourt, quote from 'Tis A Memoir

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