Malachy McCourt Quotes

That's one part of oppression is to make sure you are a shameful, shamed human being. That takes care of the past.

Alcoholism is a dread, an awful, and fatal disease.

I had great faith that perhaps this man Obama would do something, but he is, we're all in the grip of big money.

When an English man speaks well, for example now, and this is another way of putting us down, they say he's "eloquent" you see. "Oh, eloquent chap they are!" An Irish person speak well, they say, "Ah, you have the gift of the gab." "Ah, you kissed the blarney stone." You see, all of this putting us down.

A lie to me is a dream that might come true.

Here am I, a human being and that has a body that is getting old. And I only have one, I can't trade it in.

It's one day at a time, that's all there is to it, and so I don't have to worry about it. All I do is, okay, I do not have to drink. And if I feel like it, I postpone it for ten minutes, and that way I find something else to do in the meantime.

[ ... ] life can turn from being cheerful, warm and cozy to negative in a sec, and all it takes is us handing the power of happiness over to another human being.

I absolutely love the public transportation system in New York. No matter what, no matter how people complain, it is the best in the world.

In Limerick, a family that was dysfunctional was one who could afford to drink but didn't.

There seems to be less obvious corruption in city government and New York politicians, they aren't Republican or Democrat, they're New Yorkers.

Imagination in the child is powerful. Reading and laughter and love are essential in our lives.

The alcoholism got me and I ruined my first marriage with drinking and the lying and the deceit and infidelity, and all of that. The whole bloody thing.

Being a kid myself, I loved playing and I loved playing with words, and making up things and riddles and songs and not afraid of being silly in public.

I think people are so disillusioned with the parties. It's one party with two different names, and they are so spineless.

To be Irish today is the abandonment of shame and the younger people are moving it out and they're moving the fear away. They're not afraid, they're adventurous.

I tell my children, shut up and let me speak. What I've learned, I have been married for 45 years and in my own family It is that I've learned to stop being judgmental, to listen.

The Supreme Court gives corporations the same rights as a human being. It's absurd. You can't do that.

They don't allow a dying on the highway. No Passing. They give you a ticket if you die on the highway.

I kind of miss the old sleazy Times Square, in a way. And yet I don't mind not being accosted by all sorts of strange people.

This is the place for me where every single dream I ever had came to fruition and I love it dearly. I love ya, New York.

There were a few people who got jobs in Limerick, a big barrel on wheels, and it was a barrel that went back and forth, and a shovel and a broom. So, they went around shoveling the horseshit into this barrel. So, you got that job when you were around 15, and then you got to retire at the age of 65, with a pension. A small pension. So that would be 50 years of shoveling horseshit. And I was advised very seriously that I should get that job.

We are spectators to violence, and therefore are, how well we don't know and make sure we don't know the difference of real violence to that of simulation.

The word is a sound of some sort and that's where the energy comes from.

I am full of theories that are based on a very liquid foundation, because I used to be a drinker.

To lose one parent is a tragedy, to lose both is utter carelessness.

My purpose in life always has been to avoid work. And I hear these people saying, "I work hard and I pay my taxes." Well, you're an asshole.

I was not a good father in my first marriage. Although there are ways of deserting the family without leaving physically, I was deserted in my head. I was always out, always in the saloons, always drinking, always messing about.

The first item on a spiritual agenda is that I am not what I do, that I am what I am, and therefore I am a walking miracle, on a daily basis.

To me a saint is a severely edited sinner. That's what I think.

Kenneth Tynan once said that the only people who can do Russian drama, outside of the Russians themselves, are the Irish. I presume that's because we are somewhat manic in the mood department. It's no bother to soar from the darkest depths to the mountaintops of delight, with the heart borne by all of that which is alive and singing. It's even less bother to swan-dive into the pits of despair and total hopelessness, with the realization that it's no use being Irish unless you know the world is eventually going to break your heart.

I see the way I look upon organized religion, I was a victim of that of mythology, and of cruelty, and all the absurd stuff.

The future has to do with fear. Don't attempt to come up here. Don't attempt to go forward, you were nobody, you are nobody, and you'll always be nothing, so don't even think about coming here because if you do, something awful will happen to you.

Once I know I'm an alcoholic then it is my obligation, duty to see what I can do about healing myself.

Do whatever you want because that's not what you are. That's what you do for the moment.

I would never become an alcoholic like my father because my father deserted us. But diseases, there's no let up.

If you look up the word "gab" in the dictionary, it's insignificant of importance, of no substance. That's what gab is.

I've avoided work all my life, you see. So, I'm like a bee. I go from flower to flower.

Look, lust, and leave, knowing I could never have one of them for myself.

Limericks don't come from Limerick. But it comes from that between the verses when they used to have those competitions that they would put in the refrain, "follow me up, follow me up, follow me up to Limerick Town."

I've been sober for 25. And every day I am very grateful that I don't drink.

Never make any reference to the other person's family. "You're just like your - " because that is out, completely.

Somebody once said that the Irish derived the greatest benefit from the English language. They court it like a beautiful woman. They make it bray with donkey laughter, they fling it at the sky like paint pots full of rainbow colors.

Whenever I'm broadcasting, I like it. When I'm broadcasting I can't wait to hear what I say.