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Q+A WITH FRANK MCCOURT

  
Born- 1930, Brooklyn, New York
1934-  moved to his native country Ireland
1949- left Limerick for the US
1970- became a teacher at Seward Park High School
1972- taught at Study Vesant High School
1981- his mother, Angela died
Sept 1996-  Angela's Ashes got published and hit bookstores all over the US
April 7, 1997- won the Pulitzer Prize for his book		  

# Have you got any regrets relating to other people about your personal experiences?
                    
I have told very little of myself. I've picked and chose and written them in Angela's Ashes to display poverty.

# Are you an American Irish or Irish American ?
                                                                              
I've become more Irish living in America than I'ould have become in Ireland. I go to Irish pubs and bars. But to tell you the truth, I am neither of the two. I'm a New Yorker and feel that New York is my home.

# Angela's Ashes has been made into a film (motion picture). Have you seen the film and what what are your feelings about it?

I've seen it. The film has been made so authentic that I couldn't take my eyes off it.

# I don't think there is much humor in "Tis" than there was in Angela's Ashes. What is your feeling about it?

In Tis, I am writing about the New York city. I had that inferior complex since I came from a poor place called Limerick in Ireland.

# What do you miss the most of Limerick?

Rugby

# Your book Tis hasn't got nice reviews in the US because it has been criticized for dealing with profanity.

I don't think so. If you look at James Joyce, you could notice a lot about profanity so his works were banned in the US.

# What did your book Angela's Ashes mainly focus on?

It mainly focuses on poverty but it also criticizes about alcoholism, churches, the way children are being educated. I felt angry about Catholicism. They looked upon us as the tiny creatures found in gutter.

# Did you have knack for writing in your childhood days?
 
When I was at the age of 12, Mr. Holland, my school teacher told me that I have got a literary genius in me. And so my classmates used to say- "Here comes the literary genius. Here comes the literary genius."

-extracted from an interview given to CNN

 Graham Greene, author of The Power and Glory and other major novels, reveals, in this interview, a prejudice against a certain part of speech:

"I have a sort of family pride in Robert Louis Stevenson, who was my mother's first cousin. I once knew a couple of pages of Stevenson almost by heart, it was so wonderfully written. It was a description of action, which is much harder to do than streams of consciousness. And he didn't use a single adverb! No one jumped quickly or walked stealthily. Of course, if you get the verbs right, you don't need adverbs."

"You've never liked adverbs, have you?

"No." (Greene was no longer smiling and spoke with chilling disapproval) "I think adverbs are absolutely bloody."