On a certain level, we don't try enough cases. We should try more cases before juries and let jurors decide. On grand juries, my position is the grand jury should be eliminated, but there are creative ways a lawyer can use a grand jury if they have a client with a sympathetic cause who has been wronged by the police.

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. So I went to the school and, being a smart cookie - as they called us in those days - I had a million questions. How did this place exist? How come I didn't know about it? Why are people living like this? Do they want to live like this?

You know that question: What do you do when you think the client's guilty? The real question is: What you do when you think a client's innocent?

You've got to learn to handle the press because god knows the government does all the time.

Your goal is to make a better world through the work you do. It's not always possible, and you have to earn a living.

I took anything that came across my doorstep. I started getting a reputation.

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