Teacher? I never dreamed I could rise so high in the world

I am not living the American Dream; I am living the American fantasy.

There's nothing sillier in the world than a teacher telling you don't do it after you already did it.

The English wouldn't give you the steam of their piss.

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.

You have to give yourself credit, not too much because that would be bragging.

I appealed to my mother. I told her it wasn't fair the way the whole family was invading my dreams and she said, Arrah, for the love o' God, drink your tea and go to school and stop tormenting us with your dreams.