Politics: where fat, bald, disagreeable men, unable to be candidates themselves, teach a president how to act on a public stage.
Jimmy BreslinA job on a newspaper is a special thing. Every day you take something that you found out about, and you put it down and in a matter of hours it becomes a product. Not just a product like a can or something. It is a personal product that people, a lot of people, take the time to sit down and read.
Jimmy BreslinPeople 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.
Jimmy BreslinPrecious was one of a large number of people on the street, many of whom appeared to be women; some, like Precious, actually were.
Jimmy BreslinThose 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.
Jimmy BreslinNewspapers are so boring. How can you read a newspaper that starts with a 51-word lead sentence?
Jimmy BreslinJournalism 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.
Jimmy BreslinWhat you want to do is not go to work. You're not missing a thing. The worst thing I did was start work young.
Jimmy BreslinTrue 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.
Jimmy BreslinAll 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.
Jimmy BreslinJournalism 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.
Jimmy BreslinI busted out of the place in a hurry and went to a saloon and drank beer and said that for the rest of my life I'd never take a job in a place where you couldn't throw cigarette butts on the floor. I was hooked on this writing for newspapers and magazines.
Jimmy BreslinSpeaks cheerful English and in the past has written this language with a paintbrush that talks.
Jimmy BreslinMen in the uniform of Wall Street retirement: black Chesterfield coat, rimless glasses and the Times folded to the obituary page.
Jimmy BreslinThe other feature is a gymnasium named after another dead politician who was gifted with fast and extremely sure hands.
Jimmy BreslinRage 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
Jimmy BreslinMarvelous Marv was holding down first base. This is like saying Willie Sutton works at your bank.
Jimmy BreslinWhy something in the public interest such as television news can be fought over, like a chain of hamburger stands, eludes me.
Jimmy BreslinThe office of president is a bastardized thing, half royalty and half democracy that nobody knows whether to genuflect or spit.
Jimmy BreslinThe first funeral for Andrew Goodman was at night and it was a lot of work. To begin with they had to kill him.
Jimmy BreslinWhen you stop drinking, you have to deal with this marvelous personality that started you drinking in the first place.
Jimmy BreslinGo around with your eyes like a camera. Don't lose it by talking. Go and listen. And work!
Jimmy BreslinIf 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.
Jimmy BreslinYou 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?
Jimmy BreslinGovernments 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.
Jimmy BreslinThe 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.
Jimmy Breslin