Quotes from Dick Wolf

People do have viewing patterns, and you disrupt those at your own peril. That's something that everybody learned after 1988. The numbers have gone down every year since that strike. Big time.

Advertising is the art of the tiny. You have to tell a complete a story and deliver a complete message in a very encapsulated form. It disciplines you to cut away extraneous information.

There are other options out there, after all, like read a book, go on the Internet, rent a movie.

There are professional negotiators working for the writers and the actors, but basically you've got the writers and actors negotiating against businessmen. That's why you get rhetoric.

Their argument is that most shows are losers, which is true, but it's also disingenuous to say, 'We are not going to take the risk unless it is totally covered by the few successful shows that are out there.'

I try to just communicate what I want done as clearly and simply as possible.

I do love television. But the business is accelerating and people are not getting the chance to fail.

I don't think you can really make television based on what you think audiences want. You can only make stories that you like, because you have to watch it so many times.

And the consumer doesn't care. They don't watch networks, they watch TV shows.

As soon as you become complacent your show gets canceled.

You have this disturbing reality that there are a lot of people who would rather say, 'I'm on strike' than 'I'm unemployed.' And those are the people who vote for strikes.

TIVO executives stand up and say, 'Well, we're not getting rid of commercials, but we are letting them fast forward, because people like commercials, and if they see one that they like they stop and watch it.' I mean, please.

I was raised not to be rude, but I also try to get the best work out of people.

People recognize certain things, like 'D' means 'this dialogue stinks.' We're dealing with shows that are written here, shot in New York and posted back here. Accurate communication is a necessity.

The story drove the book. That had a very seminal effect on the way I saw writing and storytelling. If you can set a character in a story that is compelling and has a backbone, you draw people in.

I would say that if you really wished to be a working member of the community, don't go out on strike because then there's no work and no potential of work.

If you're going to vote on a television contract, there is a certain rationality to saying that the same structures that are applied to Health Plan participation should be placed on the right to vote on a strike.

The agendas on the management side of the table now are not in sync like they used to be because you have vastly different entities supplying programming to networks.

It's show business. No show, no business.

I consider myself one of the luckiest people in the history of show business.

I get bored with establishing shots of people getting out of cars and walking into buildings, getting into elevators and then 45 seconds later they have a line.