We apply law to facts. We don't apply feelings to facts.

You always wonder whether the attacks on my capabilities came from an honest evaluation of my accomplishments or from stereotypical presumptions that we, people of color, just can't do it, for some reason. This is, for an accomplished Latino, an accomplished African American, an accomplished anyone who disproves stereotypes, it's a constant battle in your life.

I had many reasons for writing memoir but among them was the hope that every Latino child and adult would find something familiar in it.

When I call myself an affirmative action baby, I'm talking about the essence of what affirmative action was when it started.

Pretending to be a princess is fun, but it is definitely not a career.

In examining witnesses, I learned to ask general questions so as to elicit details with powerful sensory associations: the colors, the sounds, the smells that lodge an image in the mind and put the listener in the burning house.

I have spent my years since Princeton, while at law school and in my various professional jobs, not feeling completely a part of the worlds I inhabit. I am always looking over my shoulder wondering if I measure up.