Malachy McCourt Quotes

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

— Malachy McCourt

“[ ... ] 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.”

— Malachy McCourt

“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.”

— Malachy McCourt

“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.”

— Malachy McCourt

“I had the taste of the alcohol since I was 11. It allowed me to be clever, charming and to behave outrageously. Acting also allowed me not to be me. So I could indulge every fantasy in this paradise of America.”

— Malachy McCourt

“Live every day as if it's going to be your last, and one day, you'll be right.”

— Malachy McCourt

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

— Malachy McCourt

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

— Malachy McCourt

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

— Malachy McCourt

“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.”

— Malachy McCourt

“Organized religions have all the facets of organized crime, except the compassion of organized crime.”

— Malachy McCourt

“I am an alcoholic, as I said. And it is however we call it, a disease. That's an explanation, but not an excuse.”

— Malachy McCourt

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

— Malachy McCourt

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.

— Malachy McCourt

“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.”

— Malachy McCourt

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

— Malachy McCourt

“I've seen so many horrible and awful results and consequences of people practicing alcoholism. It's murder, I've seen that. I've seen a lot of suicides, a lot of strange sins.”

— Malachy McCourt

“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.”

— Malachy McCourt

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

— Malachy McCourt

“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.”

— Malachy McCourt

“When I'm writing in long hand, it just goes on and on and on. When I was in the saloon business, I would just greet people and talk to them and avoid taxes, and getting behind the bar. What else.”

— Malachy McCourt

“When I'm writing, I thoroughly enjoy it. It just goes on.”

— Malachy McCourt

“Conservatism is not a political ideology, it is a severe form of brain damage for which there's hardly any cure.”

— Malachy McCourt

“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.”

— Malachy McCourt

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

— Malachy McCourt

“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.”

— Malachy McCourt

“I stay in the present, so I don't know about the future.”

— Malachy McCourt

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

— Malachy McCourt

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.

— Malachy McCourt

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

— Malachy McCourt

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

— Malachy McCourt

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

— Malachy McCourt

“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.”

— Malachy McCourt

“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."”

— Malachy McCourt

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

— Malachy McCourt

“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.”

— Malachy McCourt

“I wonder what I can do about war. Is it the destiny of human kind to eventually wipe ourselves out with these weapons of mass destruction? Are we stupid to think that we can control them?”

— Malachy McCourt

“I would like to do away with all kind of - all weapons. A dream - totally. Including the bow an arrow.”

— Malachy McCourt

“Democracy to me is letting the other person speak and being dissenting without being disagreeable.”

— Malachy McCourt

“That's my punishment in hell, shoveling horseshit.”

— Malachy McCourt

“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.”

— Malachy McCourt

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

— Malachy McCourt

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

— Malachy McCourt

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

— Malachy McCourt

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

— Malachy McCourt

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.

— Malachy McCourt

Corporations can deduct their planes, all their office expenses, their machinery, their computers and Teleprompters and whatever else they have. They can deduct their yachts, they can deduct their limousines, their planes, everything.

— Malachy McCourt

“The purpose of the media is to make us all spectators, to watch. So that's why we have millions of fat children watching the games, eating and consuming and not playing themselves.”

— Malachy McCourt

“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.”

— Malachy McCourt

“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.”

— Malachy McCourt