I was fifteen years old when I understood how it is that things break down: people can't imagine someone else's point of view.

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

Being a justice. If you love law the way I do... you're given the job of a lifetime... you're permitted to address the most important legal questions of the country, and sometimes the world. And in doing so, you make a difference in people's lives.

There are no bystanders in life [...] Our humanity makes us each a part of something greater than ourselves.

We have to look and ensure that we're paying attention to what we're doing, so that we don't reflexively institute processes and procedures that exclude people without thought.

Reaching a conclusion has to start with what the parties are arguing, but examining in all situations carefully the facts as they prove them or not prove them, the record as they create it, and then making a decision that is limited to what the law says on the facts before the judge.

I am an ordinary person who has been blessed with extraordinary opportunities and experiences. Today is one of those experiences.