Happiness Is Hard To Recall. Its Just

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.

It's Not Enough To Be American. You Always Have To Be Something Else, Irish-american, German-american, And You'd Wonder How They'd Get Along If Someone Hadn't Invented The Hyphen

Andy Says, I Don't Understand How They Can Give Loans To People Who Want To Spend Two Weeks Lying On The Sand At The Goddam Jersey Shore And Then Turn Down A Woman With Three Kids Hanging On By Her Fingernails.

He Says, You Have To Study And Learn So That You Can Make Up Your Own Mind About History And Everything Else But You Can't Make Up An Empty Mind. Stock Your Mind, Stock Your Mind. You Might Be Poor , Your Shoes Might Be Broken , But Your Mind Is A Palace.

I'm Not One Of Those James Joyce Intellectuals Who Can Stand Back And Look At The Whole Edifice... It Was A Slow Process For Me To Just Crawl Out Of It, Like A Snake Leaving His Skin Behind.