Sandra

“You never know when you might come home and find Mam sitting by the fire chatting with a woman and a child, strangers. Always a woman and child. Mam finds them wandering the streets and if they ask, Could you spare a few pennies, miss? her heart breaks. She never has money so she invites them home for tea and a bit of fried bread and if it's a bad night she'll let them sleep by the fire on a pile of rags in the corner. The bread she gives them always means less for us and if we complain she says there are always people worse off and we can surely spare a little from what we have.”
― Frank McCourt, Angela’s Ashes

“They can afford to smile because they all have teeth so dazzling if they dropped them in the snow they'd be lost forever.”
― Frank McCourt, 'Tis

“Being a victim is more palatable than having to recognize the intrinsic contradictions of one's own governing philosophy.”
― Tom Clancy, The Hunt for Red October

“In New York, with Prohibition in full swing, he thought he had died and gone o hell for his sins. Then he discovered speakeasies and he rejoiced.”
― Frank McCourt