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

My anti-authoritarian instincts let me directly to criminal defense work.

I think people are afraid. I remember when we'd have discussions in the '60s among people who were active. We'd say, "Well, people are afraid," and the answer to us was, "If you're afraid, you know you should be doing something." People are afraid today, but they're not doing anything.

I don't have any problem with Mao or Stalin or the Vietnamese leaders or certainly Fidel locking up people they see as dangerous. Because so often, dissidence has been used by the greater powers to undermine a people's revolution.

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.

I would never take a case that had to do with abusing children. They're the true innocents.

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.