Joseph Wambaugh quotes

The serial arsonist is the most difficult to apprehend because the evidence is burned up. (Joseph Wambaugh)
Every time I write a nonfiction book I get sued. View quote
Joseph Wambaugh
I enjoy doing the research of nonfiction; that gives me some pleasure, being a detective again. View quote
Joseph Wambaugh
I certainly believe it's over for the jury system, but we won't admit it for a while. View quote
Joseph Wambaugh
Probably 95 percent of the things that are written never get on the screen. View quote
Joseph Wambaugh
The time has come for professional jurors. View quote
Joseph Wambaugh
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. View quote
Joseph Wambaugh
Civil servants take forever to do anything. View quote
Joseph Wambaugh
When I interview people accused of capital offenses, I never even ask if they did it. I would consider that unprofessional. View quote
Joseph Wambaugh
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. View quote
Joseph Wambaugh
I hadn't done anything in six years; I was just vegetating. (Joseph Wambaugh)
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. View quote
Joseph Wambaugh
What is it about the component of fire? People have written about it. People have wondered about it. View quote
Joseph Wambaugh
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. View quote
Joseph Wambaugh
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. View quote
Joseph Wambaugh
When I wrote The Onion Field, I realized that my first two novels were just practice. View quote
Joseph Wambaugh
As a cop, I dealt with every kind of bum and criminal. They all have more integrity than some Hollywood people. View quote
Joseph Wambaugh
The O.J. Simpson case, they had no understanding of that DNA evidence, and didn't want to. View quote
Joseph Wambaugh
I enjoy adapting my own work, or anybody's work. I like to adapt books. View quote
Joseph Wambaugh
Jury selection is strictly an emotional process. They're looking for people they can manipulate. Both sides are. View quote
Joseph Wambaugh
The Onion Field made a real writer. And then I knew it was over, I couldn't be a cop anymore. (Joseph Wambaugh)
Today, lawyers are attacking more; they're attacking everything. A good example is the O.J. Simpson case. View quote
Joseph Wambaugh

Joseph Wambaugh

Joseph Wambaugh - Image
Photo: Mark Coggins from San Francisco, CC BY 2.0
Occupation: American Writer
Born: January 22, 1937
Died: February 28, 2025
Quotes count: 22