Jimmy Breslin Quotes

Don't trust a brilliant idea unless it survives the hangover.

If a man, for private profit, tears at the public news, does so with the impatience of one who thinks he actually owns the news you get, it is against the national interest.

Rage is ... This is Breslin's full quote: Rage is the only quality which has kept me, or anybody I have ever studied, writing columns for newspapers

When you stop drinking, you have to deal with this marvelous personality that started you drinking in the first place.

The office of president is a bastardized thing, half royalty and half democracy that nobody knows whether to genuflect or spit.

Politics: where fat, bald, disagreeable men, unable to be candidates themselves, teach a president how to act on a public stage.

When you leave New York you ain't going anywhere.

That's the horrible thing starting out, you get distracted a lot because anything is easier than writing. It's just the same enemy - blank paper.

The test of a good idea is its ability to last through a hangover

True New Yorkers do not really seek information about the outside world. They feel that if anything is not in New York it is not likely to be interesting.

Media, the plural of mediocrity.

The first funeral for Andrew Goodman was at night and it was a lot of work. To begin with they had to kill him.

Anything that isn't writing is easy

Marvelous Marv was holding down first base. This is like saying Willie Sutton works at your bank.

Speaks cheerful English and in the past has written this language with a paintbrush that talks.

What you want to do is not go to work. You're not missing a thing. The worst thing I did was start work young.

Men in the uniform of Wall Street retirement: black Chesterfield coat, rimless glasses and the Times folded to the obituary page.

Complainant received immediate lacerations of the credibility.

Baseball isn't statistics, it's Joe DiMaggio rounding second base.

Out in the ocean, a rope is put around the man's neck. The other end of the rope is attached to an old jukebox and it is thrown overboard. The man invariably follows.

The number one rule of thieves is that nothing is too small to steal.

Don't call me a journalist; I hate the word. It's pretentious!

The other feature is a gymnasium named after another dead politician who was gifted with fast and extremely sure hands.

I became a copy boy. Not for long. I started writing stories.

If you gather a lot of stuff, then you write it, write in scenes with dialogue. Somewhere in the middle, rising from all this research like strong metal towers, is your opinions.

Designed by architects with honorable intentions but hands of palsy.

Why something in the public interest such as television news can be fought over, like a chain of hamburger stands, eludes me.

Football is a game designed to keep coal miners off the streets.

Newspapers are so boring. How can you read a newspaper that starts with a 51-word lead sentence?

Precious was one of a large number of people on the street, many of whom appeared to be women; some, like Precious, actually were.

I'm on my high school football team and MUST show how much I know.

The professional arsonist builds vacant lots for money.

The auditorium, named after a dead Queens politician is windowless in honor of the secrecy in which he lived and, probably, the bank vaults he frequented.

Go around with your eyes like a camera. Don't lose it by talking. Go and listen. And work!

I always react to news immediately. That's my business.

I think it would be very good if writers and artists take a stand in electoral politics. They've got the ability to put words together that might reach the ears of the people of the city who vote.

Politics, where fat, bald, disagreeable men, unable to be candidates themselves, teach a president how to act on a public stage.