I accept the proposition that...“to judge is an exercise of power” and because...“there is no objective stance but only a series of perspectives – no neutrality, no escape from choice in judging,” I further accept that our experiences as women and people of color affect our decisions.

My hope is that I will take the good from my experiences and extrapolate them further into areas with which I am unfamiliar. I simply do not know exactly what that difference will be in my judging. But I accept there will be some based on my gender and my Latina heritage.

Remember that no one succeeds alone. Never walk alone in your future paths.

My mom loved the book [My beloved world] and she said to me, 'I never knew you had done so much.'

Experience has taught me that you cannot value dreams according to the odds of their coming true. Their real value is in stirring within us the will to aspire.

I'm a New Yorker, and I jaywalk with the best of them.

All judges have cases that touch our passions deeply, but we all struggle constantly with remaining impartial.