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

About Joseph Wambaugh

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More quotes from Joseph Wambaugh

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

Joseph Wambaugh

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

Joseph Wambaugh

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

Joseph Wambaugh

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

Joseph Wambaugh

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

Joseph Wambaugh

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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

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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

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

Joseph Wambaugh

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

Joseph Wambaugh

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Civil servants take forever to do anything.

Joseph Wambaugh

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The time has come for professional jurors.

Joseph Wambaugh

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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

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Every time I write a nonfiction book I get sued.

Joseph Wambaugh

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

Joseph Wambaugh

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

Joseph Wambaugh

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

Joseph Wambaugh

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

Joseph Wambaugh

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You’ve got people who are looking at DNA evidence and other evidence like that and they’re ignoring it.

Joseph Wambaugh

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

Joseph Wambaugh

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

Joseph Wambaugh

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

Joseph Wambaugh

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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

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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

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