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Jimmy Breslin Biography

James Earle Breslin (October 17, 1928 – March 19, 2017) was an American journalist and author. Until the time of his death, he wrote a column for the New York Daily News Sunday edition. He wrote numerous novels, and columns of his appeared regularly in various newspapers in his hometown of New York City. He served as a regular columnist for the Long Island newspaper Newsday until his retirement on November 2, 2004, though he still published occasional pieces for the paper. He was known for his newspaper columns which offered a sympathetic viewpoint of the working-class people of New York City, and was awarded the 1986 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary "for columns which consistently champion ordinary citizens".

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Jimmy Breslin Quotes

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

Anywhere, Leave, New York, York

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

Coal, Coal Miners, Designed, Football, Games, Streets

All political power is primarily an illusion. Illusion. Mirrors and blue smoke, beautiful blue smoke rolling over the surface of highly polished mirrors, first a thin veil of blue smoke, then a thick cloud that suddenly dissolves into wisps of blue smoke, the mirrors catching it all, bouncing it back and forth.

Beautiful, Clouds, Dissolves, Highly, Mirrors, Polished

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.

Information, Interesting, New York, World, Yorkers

People born in Queens, raised to say that each morning they get on the subway and "go to the city," have a resentment of Manhattan, of the swiftness of its life and success of the people who live there.

Cities, Live, Morning, Queens, Subway, Swiftness

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

Writing, Quality, Rage

Media, the plural of mediocrity.

Fun, Media, Mediocrity, Plural

You see, the Mets are losers, just like nearly everybody else in life. This is the team for the cab driver who gets held up and the guy who loses out on a promotion because he didn't maneuver himself to lunch with the boss enough. It is the team for every guy who has to get out of bed in the morning and go to work for short money on a job he does not like. The Yankees? Who does well enough to root for them, Laurence Rockefeller?

Baseball, Boss, Driver, Jobs, Losers, Morning

Governments mostly don't do much. And you've also got to understand the level of incompetence out there. Nobody knows what they're doing. They just pose and act as if they know and walk through life and get away with it.

Away, Get Away, Incompetence, Know, Life, Nobody Knows

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

News, Business, React

Journalism schools are good to get a job, but I don't know what else they are good for. I don't like the word "journalism" to begin with. It's news reporting, and that consists of using your two feet. The only lesson, then, that you could give people is how to climb stairs, because there are no stories on the first floor.

Consists, Giving, Good, Know, People, School

Anything that isn't writing is easy

Writing, Easy

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

Boring, Newspaper, Newspapers, Sentences

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

Democracy, Half, Office, President, Royalty, Thing

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

Retirement, Wall, Glasses, Street, Coat

The professional arsonist builds vacant lots for money.

Arsonists, Vacant, Counterfeit Money, Lots, Professional, Money

Those of Manhattan are the brokers on Wall Street and they talk of people who went to the same colleges; those from Queens are margin clerks in the back offices and they speak of friends who live in the same neighborhood.

Queens, Wall, College, Friends, Same

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

Firsts, Marvelous, Marv, Saying, Bank, Like

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.

Ocean, Men, Jukebox, Rope, Attached

Journalism should be truthful and entertaining. You know, with news and important facts you can entertain people too. Have a little humor. Life isn't all that deadly all the time, but while you're having fun, tell the truth. If every word of a column is deadly serious, I can't read it. It makes me throw up.

Fun, Important, People, Throw, Time

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