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Top 30 Joseph Wambaugh Quotes (2025 Update)

Joseph Wambaugh Quote: “The time has come for professional jurors.”

1. “The time has come for professional jurors.”

— Joseph Wambaugh

Joseph Wambaugh 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.”

2. “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

Joseph Wambaugh Quote: “No, policemen were not danger lovers, they were seekers of the awesome, the incredible, even the unspeakable in human experience. Never mind whether they could interpret, never mind if it was potentially hazardous to the soul. To be there was the thing.”

3. “No, policemen were not danger lovers, they were seekers of the awesome, the incredible, even the unspeakable in human experience. Never mind whether they could interpret, never mind if it was potentially hazardous to the soul. To be there was the thing.”

— Joseph Wambaugh

Joseph Wambaugh 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.”

4. “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

Joseph Wambaugh 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.”

5. “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

Joseph Wambaugh Quote: “But Team Policing and the Basic Car Plan had created lots and lots of new jobs for officers of staff rank. Therefore lieutenants made captain, captains made commander and commanders made deputy chief, and everyone had all the time they needed to think up new things for the working cops to do aside from catching crooks, which most of the new captains, commanders and deputy chiefs knew nothing about.”

6. “But Team Policing and the Basic Car Plan had created lots and lots of new jobs for officers of staff rank. Therefore lieutenants made captain, captains made commander and commanders made deputy chief, and everyone had all the time they needed to think up new things for the working cops to do aside from catching crooks, which most of the new captains, commanders and deputy chiefs knew nothing about.”

— Joseph Wambaugh

Joseph Wambaugh Quote: “It’s corruption never been systemic, because a fish rots from the head.”

7. “It’s corruption never been systemic, because a fish rots from the head.”

— Joseph Wambaugh

Joseph Wambaugh Quote: “Jury selection is strictly an emotional process. They’re looking for people they can manipulate. Both sides are.”

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

— Joseph Wambaugh

Joseph Wambaugh Quote: “When I wrote The Onion Field, I realized that my first two novels were just practice.”

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

— Joseph Wambaugh

Joseph Wambaugh Quote: “The Onion Field made a real writer. And then I knew it was over, I couldn’t be a cop anymore.”

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

— Joseph Wambaugh

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

11. “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

Joseph Wambaugh Quote: “Sometimes the boy wished they could sit and that words would flow. But when they sat, eyes would turn shyly away. Father and son usually fell silent. It was ancient inherited shame of fathers and sons.”

12. “Sometimes the boy wished they could sit and that words would flow. But when they sat, eyes would turn shyly away. Father and son usually fell silent. It was ancient inherited shame of fathers and sons.”

— Joseph Wambaugh

Joseph Wambaugh Quote: “Nothing could be more fearful than losing one’s freedom. To be confined. Never to see a golden cloudburst or rivers of sunlight on dark flowers. never to walk your own cultivated furrows. And the memory dangled over his heart like the sword of Damocles.”

13. “Nothing could be more fearful than losing one’s freedom. To be confined. Never to see a golden cloudburst or rivers of sunlight on dark flowers. never to walk your own cultivated furrows. And the memory dangled over his heart like the sword of Damocles.”

— Joseph Wambaugh

Joseph Wambaugh Quote: “Every time I write a nonfiction book I get sued.”

14. “Every time I write a nonfiction book I get sued.”

— Joseph Wambaugh

Joseph Wambaugh Quote: “Civil servants take forever to do anything.”

15. “Civil servants take forever to do anything.”

— Joseph Wambaugh

Joseph Wambaugh Quote: “I enjoy doing the research of nonfiction; that gives me some pleasure, being a detective again.”

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

— Joseph Wambaugh

Joseph Wambaugh Quote: “The serial arsonist is the most difficult to apprehend because the evidence is burned up.”

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

— Joseph Wambaugh

Joseph Wambaugh Quote: “You listen to me, Treadwell. You’re an office pogue. You never been anything but an office pogue. You don’t have the slightest idea what goes on in a working police division. But you keep your mouth shut and do what you’re told and I’ll see to it that you’re a captain someday and you can have your own station to play with. You don’t and I’ll have you in uniform on the nightwatch in Watts. Understand me, Treadwell?”

18. “You listen to me, Treadwell. You’re an office pogue. You never been anything but an office pogue. You don’t have the slightest idea what goes on in a working police division. But you keep your mouth shut and do what you’re told and I’ll see to it that you’re a captain someday and you can have your own station to play with. You don’t and I’ll have you in uniform on the nightwatch in Watts. Understand me, Treadwell?”

— Joseph Wambaugh

Joseph Wambaugh 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.”

19. “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

Joseph Wambaugh 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.”

20. “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

Joseph Wambaugh 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.”

21. “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

Joseph Wambaugh Quote: “I certainly believe it’s over for the jury system, but we won’t admit it for a while.”

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

— Joseph Wambaugh

Joseph Wambaugh Quote: “Mike Cabral’s task force came to believe that John Orr was responsible for the vast majority of all the arsons they were studying, and by way of unverifiable proof, they pointed to the astounding statistic that showed a 90 percent drop in brush-fire activity since his arrest. In the county foothill area, brush fires had averaged sixty-seven a year clear back to 1981. After his arrest the average had dropped to one per year.”

23. “Mike Cabral’s task force came to believe that John Orr was responsible for the vast majority of all the arsons they were studying, and by way of unverifiable proof, they pointed to the astounding statistic that showed a 90 percent drop in brush-fire activity since his arrest. In the county foothill area, brush fires had averaged sixty-seven a year clear back to 1981. After his arrest the average had dropped to one per year.”

— Joseph Wambaugh

Joseph Wambaugh Quote: “Burglars and thieves sometimes complained that they only committed crimes against property, not like muggers and rapists. Muggers and rapists never faulted policemen at all, which caused the choirboys to comment that as a rule muggers and rapists were the most appreciative people they contacted.”

24. “Burglars and thieves sometimes complained that they only committed crimes against property, not like muggers and rapists. Muggers and rapists never faulted policemen at all, which caused the choirboys to comment that as a rule muggers and rapists were the most appreciative people they contacted.”

— Joseph Wambaugh

Joseph Wambaugh Quote: “I hadn’t done anything in six years; I was just vegetating.”

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

— Joseph Wambaugh

Joseph Wambaugh Quote: “Probably 95 percent of the things that are written never get on the screen.”

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

— Joseph Wambaugh

Joseph Wambaugh Quote: “I enjoy adapting my own work, or anybody’s work. I like to adapt books.”

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

— Joseph Wambaugh

Joseph Wambaugh Quote: “When Vince was through talking that day, one of the grand jurors said, “Explain to me, to all of us, why in the world didn’t you at some time go to Mrs. Reinert and warn her?” And by now Vince knew he’d spend the rest of his life being asked that question. And by now he knew that even when the words were not being uttered, the eyes were asking it.”

28. “When Vince was through talking that day, one of the grand jurors said, “Explain to me, to all of us, why in the world didn’t you at some time go to Mrs. Reinert and warn her?” And by now Vince knew he’d spend the rest of his life being asked that question. And by now he knew that even when the words were not being uttered, the eyes were asking it.”

— Joseph Wambaugh

Joseph Wambaugh Quote: “I was never a wet-eyed, passionate writer; I was always a policeman.”

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

— Joseph Wambaugh

Joseph Wambaugh 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.”

30. “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

Joseph Wambaugh Quote: “What is it about the component of fire? People have written about it. People have wondered about it.”

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

— Joseph Wambaugh

Joseph Wambaugh Quote: “When I interview people accused of capital offenses, I never even ask if they did it. I would consider that unprofessional.”

32. “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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