Jimmy Breslin is irascible. As his former editor at New York Daily News Gilman Spencer wrote in 1988, "he's not always housebroken." His voice is strong, the pace breathless, his indignation and fervor unmistakable. A master at capturing NYC through observation, dialogue, prose that resists editing.

In a May 24, 1999, column in the New Yorker, Hendrik Hertzberg, called Breslin "one of the all-time greats."

He began his career in journalism as a copy boy and sportswriter. He worked at the New York Herald Tribune, the New York Post and in 1999 is writing three times a week for Newsday. He has also been a TV commentator and magazine editor. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1986.

There are several collections of his columns, two novels: The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight (1969), which was made into a movie, and World Without End Amen (1973).