I think there's a large segment of the mainland population that does not really understand the number of territories that are part of the United States.

I am a product of affirmative action. I am the perfect affirmative action baby. I am Puerto Rican, born and raised in the south Bronx. My test scores were not comparable to my colleagues at Princeton and Yale. Not so far off so that I wasn't able to succeed at those institutions.

Personal experiences affect the facts that judges choose to see.

Even though Article IV of the Constitution says that treaties are the 'supreme law of the land,' in most instances they're not even law.

I am willing to bet that there are some Puerto Ricans who don’t know about [their status].

I realized that people had an unreal image of me, that somehow I was a god on Mount Olympus. I decided that if I were going to make use of my role as a Supreme Court Justice, it would be to inspire people to realize that, first, I was just like them and second, if I could do it, so could they.

I listened very, very carefully to the world around me to pick up the signals of when trouble was coming. Not that I could stop it. But it made me observant. That was helpful when I became a lawyer, because I knew how to read people's signals.