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

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?

How could I have been the valedictorian, the smartest, and never known Harlem existed? As a result, I began a lifelong learning experience, because I could not accept what the party line was with education - that these people want to live like this, these people don't have ambition, they don't want to work. You know, all the usual bullshit.

Today, it's not the same playing field as when I first became a lawyer in 1977, where the government had been restricted by our wonderful Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren's court rulings. Now it's all going the other way, the flow is against the defendant, against anything that could really help a client. But you still fight it, you do what you can do. It's all there is.

There's a lot of active radical thought today but not much action.

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

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.