Joseph Wambaugh > Quotes

“You have to experience it, in order to speak about it with authority. Joseph Wambaugh says it with an air of that same authenticity, in his stories of contemporary Police activities, and, with a disarming tongue in cheek, frankness. ”
― Joseph Wambaugh, The Choirboys

“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, The Onion Field

“Bill Bradfield gave Jack Holtz the stare, but Jack Holtz stared back and said, “That bullshit only works on intelligent people.”
― Joseph Wambaugh, Echoes in the Darkness

“I mean that a battered child has a marvelous capacity to adjust to his torture and will ceaselessly love his battering parents. I mean that the mother of a sexually molested child will not leave nor truly protect the child from the father as long as the man has a good job or otherwise preserves that mother from an economic life which is more horrifying to her than the molestation of her child. I mean that the weakness of the human race is stupefying and that it’s not the capacity for evil which astounds young policemen like you and me, Dean. Rather it’s the mind boggling worthlessness of human beings. There’s not enough dignity in mankind for evil and that’s the most terrifying thing a policeman learns.”
― Joseph Wambaugh, The Choirboys

“Flotsam said, “He thinks I shouldn’t do surfboard self-defense on four squids that flip us off and stole my juices when I was rippin’. They thought it was cooleo till one of them caught my log upside his head when I snaked him on the next wave.”

“What?” Ronnie said.

“All I said was,” Jetsam said to Flotsam, “You should cap the little surf Nazi if you wanna turn him into part of the food chain, not torpedo him till he’s almost dead in the foamy.”
― Joseph Wambaugh, Hollywood Crows

“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, The Onion Field

“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, Echoes in the Darkness

“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, Hollywood Station

“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, The Onion Field

“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, The Choirboys

“And as Harold Bloomguard gulped nervously all three young men nodded at Scuz. “And another thing, I’m sorry I gotta give you some a the shitty jobs but we get a vice complaint we gotta investigate it. I wish I could just let you work fun things like gambling and call girls and bookmaking back offices and fancy bars with good drinks, but that usually ain’t what we gotta do. So try to have fun but don’t get hurt. That’s the only rule I got. You let yourself get hurt and I’ll break your arm!”
― Joseph Wambaugh, The Choirboys

“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, Fire Lover: A True Story

“Of course, the happy shutterbug couldn't have known that his picture of a dildo keel would soon inspire a plot leading to murder and ensnare human beings like dolphins in a gill net. For he was just a San Diego cop who drove a boat, not a true man of the sea. Not one who understands in his soul that the actions of people are like the tides that chase the moon but invariably come crashing back, with all manner of thrashing things roiling in their foamy wake.”
― Joseph Wambaugh, Floaters: A Novel

“seemed constant, even as to old opinions. Shelly now held a master’s degree from Notre”
― Joseph Wambaugh, Echoes in the Darkness

“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, The Choirboys

“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, The Choirboys

“Valnikov was momentarily deafened. Natalie was holding her ears. The uniformed cops fired eighteen rounds at the two lights.”
― Joseph Wambaugh, The Black Marble

“It was best not to ask too many questions of the Ferrets and Weasels of this world. There was less to deny when the headhunters put you on a polygraph.”
― Joseph Wambaugh, The Glitter Dome

“Pardon?” Now Valnikov had lost the thread again. It was unraveled and he hadn’t the faintest idea why she was upset, why she was raising her voice. “You’ve been working this division one month,” she smirked. “We’ve hardly said more than a good morning before today. We’ve been partners for, oh, four hours. And you think you can dance me into a porno movie for a nooner?” “Did I say something wrong?” “Oh, Jesus Christ!” she sneered, shoving the paper cup into the bag. “Let’s finish handling our calls.” Valnikov sipped the rest of the coffee but his lunch was ruined. He knew for certain that he had offended her but didn’t know why. He was troubled and didn’t know what to say to make it right. The sparkling motes were swimming. He did the only thing he could. He started all over again. “Natalie, would you like to see a movie?”
― Joseph Wambaugh, The Black Marble

“He felt that the job was not particularly hazardous physically but was incredibly hazardous emotionally and too often led to divorce, alcoholism, and suicide. 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, The Onion Field

“He said to them, “Weird? This ain’t weird.” And then he uttered the phrase that one heard every night around the station when things seemed too surreal to be true: “Man, this is fucking Hollywood!” After that, there was usually no need for further comment.”
― Joseph Wambaugh, Hollywood Crows

“During his years in Los Angeles, Viktor Chernenko had learned that one similarity between life in the old USSR and life in Los Angeles—life under a command economy and a market economy—was that a tremendous amount of business was transacted by people in subcultures, people whom no one ever sees except the police.”
― Joseph Wambaugh, Hollywood Station

“Listen, Baxter,” Sam said. “We have crime in direct proportion to freedom. Lots of freedom, lots of crime. All I know for sure is something I’ve believed all my life. And it was verified for me in Vietnam and certified in the four and a half years I’ve been a cop. It’s that people are never more pathetic than when they’re asking themselves that absurd, ridiculous, laughable question, ‘Who am I?’” And then it was Sam’s turn to spill several drops as he tipped his glass. He paused, wiped off his moustache, pressed the nosepiece of his glasses and said, “If most people ever let themselves find the answer to that question they’d go into the toilet and slash their wrists. Because they’re nothing! The sooner you understand that, the sooner you can do police work without torturing yourself.”
― Joseph Wambaugh, The Choirboys

“The passage was underlined. It simply said: “What is it, Catullus? Why do you not make haste to die?” FOURTEEN”
― Joseph Wambaugh, The Choirboys

“The conversation was forever ended when Doomsday Dan pulled their shop to the curb, put it in park, and, turning to face his young partner, said, “This ain’t the city of angels, it’s the city of angles, where everybody’s looking for an edge. There’re hundreds of languages spoken right here in Babelwood, right? It’s all about diversity and preferences and PC. So if the lottery of life gave you an edge, you’re gonna accept it and be grateful. Because even though you’re a nice kid with potential, I’m telling you right here and now that if you don’t shut the fuck up and act like you been somewhere, as your FTO I’m gonna decide that you’re too goddamn stupid to be a cop and maybe shouldn’t even make your probation! Are you tracking?”
― Joseph Wambaugh, Hollywood Crows

“The problems began almost immediately for the Hollywood Division CRO because, according to unofficial reports to the office of the chief of police, Hollywood was not like anywhere else. In fact, the unofficial report referred to Hollywood as “America’s kook capital.”
― Joseph Wambaugh, Hollywood Crows

“was always taught that the man is the master of the house and you just accept what he wants.”
― Joseph Wambaugh, Echoes in the Darkness

“You’re right, bro,” Jetsam said. “Why should I give a shit if a driver don’t have pants on? Sometimes I forget where I’m at.” Then he looked at his partner and they said in unison, “This is fucking Hollywood!”
― Joseph Wambaugh, Hollywood Moon

“This is Hollywood,” Flotsam said, “where men are men and so are the women.”
― Joseph Wambaugh, Hollywood Crows

“And at last, the courtroom rail birds were going to get a chance to hear something titillating. About John Orr getting his mongoose milked by an honest-to-God cop.”
― Joseph Wambaugh, Fire Lover: A True Story