Joseph Wambaugh

Civil servants take forever to do anything.

— Joseph Wambaugh

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

— Joseph Wambaugh

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

— 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…

— Joseph Wambaugh

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

— Joseph Wambaugh

“You have to experience it, in order to speak about it with authority. Joseph Wambaugh says it with an air of that…

— 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

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

— Joseph Wambaugh

The time has come for professional jurors.

— Joseph Wambaugh

“Hareem was speaking with the”

— Joseph Wambaugh

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

— 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…

— Joseph Wambaugh

“Lawrence of Arabia said old and wise means tired and disappointed. He didn’t live long enough to know how right he was.”

— Joseph Wambaugh

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

— Joseph Wambaugh

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

— Joseph Wambaugh

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

— Joseph Wambaugh

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

— Joseph Wambaugh

As a cop, I dealt with every kind of bum and criminal. They all have more integrity than some Hollywood people.

— Joseph Wambaugh

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

— Joseph Wambaugh

“Flotsam said, “He thinks I shouldn’t do surfboard self-defense on four squids that flip us off and stole my juices when I…

— Joseph Wambaugh

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

— Joseph Wambaugh

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

— Joseph Wambaugh

The Onion Field, that one got pretty close to me because I was a cop when it happened. I saw some of…

— Joseph Wambaugh

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

— 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…

— Joseph Wambaugh