Frank McCourt Quotes

The worst things that ever happened to me were before I was 20. It has been slow, hard-won improvement since then.

I would never wish my upbringing on anyone... but I wouldn't take it back for the world.

Deliverance is about what I went through the first time. And I chalk it up as a learning experience.

I didn't lead a very wise life, myself, but it was a full one and a grown-up one. You come of age very quickly through shipwreck and disaster.

My childhood was extreme.

I've been through so much stuff that I hope even my enemies wouldn't have to go through.

My dad was trying to prepare me for what he went through as a kid.

My girls had to grow up quick because of everything we've been through.

I've had really hard struggles in my life.

The city is going to survive, we are going to get through it, It's going to be very, very difficult time. I don't think we yet know the pain that we're going to feel when we find out who we lost, but the thing we have to focus on now is getting this city through this, and surviving and being stronger for it.

Growing up is all about getting hurt. And then getting over it. You hurt. You recover. You move on. Odds are pretty good you're just going to get hurt again. But each time, you learn something.

Growing up is all about getting hurt. And then getting over it. You hurt. You recover. You move on. Odds are pretty good you're just going to get hurt again. But each time, you learn something. Each time you come out of it a little stronger, and at some point you realize there are more flavors of pain than coffee. Pain does two things: it teaches you, tells you that you're alive. Then it passes away and leaves you changed. And everything that will ever happen to you in life is going to involve it in one way or another.

You deal. You survive. You grow up and you build a career. And you remember these big/little hardships. They make you human.

I think I'm a survivor. I could have suffered at least 100 professional deaths. I could come up with a list of the 100 times I've come closest to death, from having pneumonia as a child to car crashes.

I don't consider myself a survivor; that's someone who has gone through something terrible.

A man is insensible to the relish of prosperity 'til he has tasted adversity.

The good things of prosperity are to be wished; but the good things that belong to adversity are to be admired.

School was a very cruel environment, and I was a loner. But I learnt to get hurt, and I learnt to cope with it.

If you're actually talking to someone who's been through a disastrous number of years, that only means one thing: They survived it.

I'm a survivor - a living example of what people can go through and survive.

No matter how cold you are or how hungry you are, you might be warm tomorrow.

How can they beat me? I've been struck by lightning, had two back operations, and been divorced twice.

When I was a kid, I had to fight for everything.

A lot of people struggle in their younger years, and I think people can relate to that.

I overcame a lot of obstacles in my life and in my childhood.