Joseph Wambaugh Quotes

• Probably 95 percent of the things that are written never get on the screen.

  Joseph Wambaugh

  Percent, Written, Screens

  45 Copy quote

• I write a thousand words a day. Nothing will stop me, I mean nothing, until the book is finished. I'm disciplined in spite of myself.

  Joseph Wambaugh

  Book, Writing, Mean

  4 Copy quote

• Perhaps it had nothing to do with sin and everything to do with sociopathy, that most incurable of human disorders because all so afflicted consider themselves blessed rather than cursed.

  Joseph Wambaugh

  Blessed, Sin, Disorder

  Joseph Wambaugh (2013). “Echoes in the Darkness”, p.368, Bantam

  4 Copy quote

• The O.J. Simpson case, they had no understanding of that DNA evidence, and didn't want to.

  Joseph Wambaugh

  Dna, Understanding, Want

  22 Copy quote

• I certainly believe it's over for the jury system, but we won't admit it for a while.

  Joseph Wambaugh

  Believe, Jury

  Interview with Ann Bruns, www.bookreporter.com. May 17, 2002.

  4 Copy quote

• It`s corruption never been systemic, because a fish rots from the head

  Joseph Wambaugh

  Corruption, Fishes

  20 Copy quote

• Jury selection is strictly an emotional process. They're looking for people they can manipulate. Both sides are.

  Joseph Wambaugh

  Emotional, People, Manipulation

  Interview with Ann Bruns, www.bookreporter.com. May 17, 2002.

  7 Copy quote

• The time has come for professional jurors.

  Joseph Wambaugh

  Jurors

  Interview with Ann Bruns, www.bookreporter.com. May 17, 2002.

  6 Copy quote

• Every time I write a nonfiction book I get sued.

  Joseph Wambaugh

  Book, Writing, Nonfiction

  Interview with Ann Bruns, www.bookreporter.com. May 17, 2002.

  7 Copy quote

• What I didn't know was that if I didn't stand with my back to the wall, Hollywood people would unscrew my ass and sell it down the river.

  Joseph Wambaugh

  Wall, Rivers, People

  7 Copy quote

• Civil servants take forever to do anything.

  Joseph Wambaugh

  Hippie, Forever, Servant

  Interview with Ann Bruns, www.bookreporter.com. May 17, 2002.

  6 Copy quote

• The Onion Field made a real writer. And then I knew it was over, I couldn't be a cop anymore.

  Joseph Wambaugh

  Real, Onions, Fields

  11 Copy quote

• I was never a wet-eyed, passionate writer; I was always a policeman.

  Joseph Wambaugh

  Passionate, Policemen, Wet

  4 Copy quote

• When I interview people accused of capital offenses, I never even ask if they did it. I would consider that unprofessional.

  Joseph Wambaugh

  People, Interviews, Accused

  Interview with Ann Bruns, www.bookreporter.com. May 17, 2002.

  7 Copy quote

• The Onion Field, that one got pretty close to me because I was a cop when it happened. I saw some of the indifference that my police department showed to the surviving officer.

  Joseph Wambaugh

  Police, Onions, Fields

  Interview with Ann Bruns, www.bookreporter.com. May 17, 2002.

  14 Copy quote

• Today, lawyers are attacking more; they're attacking everything. A good example is the O.J. Simpson case.

  Joseph Wambaugh

  Example, Today, Lawyer

  8 Copy quote

• The serial arsonist is the most difficult to apprehend because the evidence is burned up.

  Joseph Wambaugh

  Arson, Difficult, Evidence

  10 Copy quote

• I hadn't done anything in six years; I was just vegetating.

  Joseph Wambaugh

  Years, Done, Six

  Interview with Ann Bruns, www.bookreporter.com. May 17, 2002.

  4 Copy quote

• No one I know of has ever had this experience-where you had to sit and wait and wait for a DNA test to come back just so you can write the last page of the book.

  Joseph Wambaugh

  Book, Writing, Dna

  22 Copy quote

• What is it about the component of fire? People have written about it. People have wondered about it.

  Joseph Wambaugh

  Fire, People, Components

  4 Copy quote

• I enjoy adapting my own work, or anybody's work. I like to adapt books.

  Joseph Wambaugh

  Book, Enjoy, My Own

  Interview with Ann Bruns, www.bookreporter.com. May 17, 2002.

  7 Copy quote

• If you take 67 brush fires times 10 years, that's almost 700 right there. Those brush fires are incredibly dangerous, all those homes going down proved that.

  Joseph Wambaugh

  Home, Fire, Years

  Interview with Ann Bruns, www.bookreporter.com. May 17, 2002.

  7 Copy quote

• I'm sure I took some licks at the system, and at trials and lawyers in general. I've seen enough of them for so many years both as a cop and a defendant in defamation cases.

  Joseph Wambaugh

  Years, Trials, Lawyer

  Interview with Ann Bruns, www.bookreporter.com. May 17, 2002.

  61 Copy quote

• I enjoy doing the research of nonfiction; that gives me some pleasure, being a detective again.

  Joseph Wambaugh

  Giving, Research, Fiction And Nonfiction

  Interview with Ann Bruns, www.bookreporter.com. May 17, 2002.

  10 Copy quote

• When I wrote The Onion Field, I realized that my first two novels were just practice.

  Joseph Wambaugh

  Practice, Two, Onions

  Interview with Ann Bruns, www.bookreporter.com. May 17, 2002.

  7 Copy quote

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