David Simon

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to hear David Simon speak. Simon, creator of "The Wire" and "Treme" and writer of "Homicide" and "The Corner" is, along with Alan Moore, my favorite living author. As Simon spoke I took notes. Here are some quotes:

"We pretend to progress when there is no progress."

"It seemed like every year I was getting better at this." - On the crime beat.

"There was a need to walk away from the police as your central source of info." - On writing "The Corner."

"That guy's lazy." - Referring to the moderator's mention of a friend who couldn't understand the dialogue in "The Wire."

"'Ball Four' is a great book about America."

"'The Wire' came out of institutional scandals of self-preservation."

"Even a Baltimore cop knows, 'Bad shooting, throw a pistol down.'" - On the US not finding weapons of mass destruction.

"The great thing about HBO was getting away from the advertising."

"People would watch 'Law and Order' and see that every punch was pulled." - On network cop shows after "The Wire."

"You tell a story once it is a fool's errand to tell it again."

"The only person that's going to mug you in Alphabet City is some four-star restaurant." - On Manhattan.

"Eighty percent of us live in metro areas. We are an urban people... I live in Baltimore among real Americans."

"'Treme' is an argument for the American city."

"They're all 'The Glenn Miller Story.'" - On the music biopic.

"You're not martyrs. You butchered your own industry long before the internet showed up." - On newspapers.

"I feel a great deal of affection for journalism."

"'Clockers' is 'The Grapes of Wrath' in the late eighties in the ghetto."

"I didn't do anything well after, like, 7th grade."

"The ugliest part of writing is you're alone."

"'That shit's wrong' is the most terrifying thing you could say to me." - On writing.