You have to study and learn so that you can make up your own mind. Stock your mind, stock your mind. It is your house of treasure and no one in the world can interfere...

They can afford to smile because they all have teeth so dazzling if they dropped them in the snow they’d be lost forever.

They said her duck recipe and the Chinese music were so dramatic everything else sounded anemic.

After a full belly all is poetry.

Les diría que escribieran una nota de despedida de ciento cincuenta palabras, como si fueran a suicidarse. Sería un buen modo de animarles a pensar en la vida en sí, pues Samuel Johnson dijo que...

Sit and quiet yourself. Luxuriate in a certain memory and the details will come. Let the images flow. You’ll be amazed at what will come out on paper. I’m still learning what it is about...

He sits in an old armchair in the corner covered with bits of blankets and a bucket behind the chair that stinks enough to make you sick and when you look at that old man...

In America, doctors, lawyers, generals, actors, television people and politicians are admired and rewarded. Not teachers. Teaching is the downstairs maid of professions. Teachers are told to use the service door or go round the...

Just let them sit in the goddam sun. But the world won’t let them because there’s nothing more dangerous than letting old farts sit in the sun. They might be thinking. Same thing with kids....

First day of your teaching you are to stand at your classroom door and let your students know how happy you are to see them. Stand, I say. Any playwright will tell you that when...

When I act tough they listen politely till the spasm passes. They know.

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

You might be poor, your shoes might be broken, but your mind is a palace.

The master says it’s a glorious thing to die for the Faith and Dad says it’s a glorious thing to die for Ireland and I wonder if there’s anyone in the world who would like...

I know that big people don’t like questions from children. They can ask all the questions they like, How’s school? Are you a good boy? Did you say your prayers? but if you ask them...

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.

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.

I felt so happy I could barely stay in my skin

Stock your mind. It is your house of treasure and no one in the world can interfere with it.