I got a job as a children's librarian at PS 175 in Harlem, and that changed everything. That was an epiphany. I didn't know Harlem existed. I didn't know there was such a place, because I grew up in white Queens, where five miles is 100 miles.

There are lawyers who believe in client-centered representation and who are dedicated on the same level I feel I was dedicated.

I would never defend a cop - though I did on a few private cases, when cops were acting not as cops but as private citizens.

I spoke in front of a huge gathering in Seattle, and someone got up and said, "I'm just so afraid." I said, "The only way not to be afraid is to join with other people who are also afraid."

The prosecution makes all the important decisions: what's charged, how much is charged, whether you can get a decent offer. Every defendant becomes an informant today.

You're working not for the corporate interest, not for the government interest, not for your own self-interest. You have a higher calling.

If you make a mistake as a prosecutor, your mistakes go home, whereas if you make a mistake defending, they go to jail.