“Because I came from Queens, which nobody in the history of New York newspapers ever wrote about or even saw, I was reputed to be streetwise and tough. Which was untrue. I didn’t fight. I chased stories, not beatings. But I knew where to find people who were somewhat less than our civic best, and so editors clung to the illusion.”

—Jimmy Breslin

If it’s true, put it in the paper and go have a drink . . . Let society sort it out.

—Breslin to Eric Shawn, Fox News, during the trial of the “Snakehead Queen” following the grounding of the cargo ship Golden Venture at Fort Tilden Beach on the Rockaway peninsula, on June 6, 1993, and the death of ten of the 286 undocumented migrants on board

“I don’t know what objectivity is. The truth is what’s important.”

—Breslin to Karen Polk, Boston Globe, 1988, following his joining New York Newsday