Joseph Wambaugh famous quotes

04-17-2025

Probably 95 percent of the things that are written never get on the screen.
-- Joseph Wambaugh
It`s corruption never been systemic, because a fish rots from the head
-- Joseph Wambaugh

#Corruption #Fishes
When I wrote The Onion Field, I realized that my first two novels were just practice.
-- Joseph Wambaugh

#Practice #Two #Onions
The O.J. Simpson case, they had no understanding of that DNA evidence, and didn't want to.
-- Joseph Wambaugh

#Dna #Understanding #Want
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
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
The serial arsonist is the most difficult to apprehend because the evidence is burned up.
-- Joseph Wambaugh

#Arsonists #Difficult #Evidence
The time has come for professional jurors.
-- Joseph Wambaugh
Today, lawyers are attacking more; they're attacking everything. A good example is the O.J. Simpson case.
-- Joseph Wambaugh

#Example #Today #Lawyer
What I didn't know was that if I didn't stand with my back to the wall, Hollywood people would unscrew my ***** and sell it down the river.
-- Joseph Wambaugh

#Wall #Rivers #People
I enjoy adapting my own work, or anybody's work. I like to adapt books.
-- Joseph Wambaugh

#Book #Enjoy #Adapting
Civil servants take forever to do anything.
-- Joseph Wambaugh

#Hippie #Forever #Servant
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
Jury selection is strictly an emotional process. They're looking for people they can manipulate. Both sides are.
-- Joseph Wambaugh

#Emotional #People #Manipulation
What is it about the component of fire? People have written about it. People have wondered about it.
-- Joseph Wambaugh

#Fire #People
Every time I write a nonfiction book I get sued.
-- Joseph Wambaugh

#Book #Writing #Nonfiction
I enjoy doing the research of nonfiction; that gives me some pleasure, being a detective again.
-- Joseph Wambaugh

#Giving #Research #Detectives
I hadn't done anything in six years; I was just vegetating.
-- Joseph Wambaugh

#Years #Done #Six
I certainly believe it's over for the jury system, but we won't admit it for a while.
-- Joseph Wambaugh

#Believe #Jury
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
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
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

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