Judy Sheindlin

I always say that when I see that needle start to go in the other direction, when people have had enough of me, I'm going to be smart enough to say goodbye. It's such a joyous ride to be on top, and it takes away from that ride if you sort of ride it down.

I knew where people were sleeping in the hallways, you know, instead of doing their job. I knew what systems weren't working.

All those good people huddling behind bars in gated communities - it's the wrong way round. The others should have the bars.

I started out in a two-room apartment in Brooklyn and thought, 'Never again.'

Being a TV star is a great gift. Everyone treats you royally.

I don't feel as if anything that has happened to me in my life was sidetracked because I was a woman.

My first husband is a lovely, lovely man, but he always viewed my job as a hobby, and there came a time where I resented that.

I don't read bad mail. I don't save mail. I'm too old to read negative things.

In too many ways, political correctness has been a bully.

I was in the family court for 25 years. And having started a second career, having a second act when you were 52 was something that I never thought would happen to me.

I'm not a good interviewer.

People from Brooklyn grow up with a certain common sense. If it doesn't ring true, it's not true.

You should want to give something back.

I was a sitting judge in Manhattan. I was a supervising judge in Manhattan, and they said to me, 'Did you ever think of doing what you do on television?'

Not everything has to be a money-making operation. You do things sometimes because it makes you feel good.

I've had an absolutely magical run.

They will find somebody younger, somebody funnier, somebody more engaged. As long as the court genre is viable, people are going to be looking for someone to knock me off of my perch.

What keeps me going is those cases, maybe ten a year, where I can make a difference.

Teach your daughters, teach your granddaughters, everybody has to have something that they're good at where they can earn a living.

Women make a terrible mistake because they usually are so desperate to nest that they pick on schlubs and worthless pieces of trash that they pick up in a bar.

My viewers are smart. They know I have a contract with a TV show and that I make a lot of money.

I deal with conflicts that irritate people and give them stress, like the dispute over a car payment. I can resolve those cases in a moment.

I'm an entertainer, and I'm paid as an entertainer.

I eat liars for breakfast.

When states and cities and our country say we're going to tax the rich - and that word 'rich' or 'wealthy' doesn't sound like it comes from success of hard work, but from something negative - I resent it.

I'm realistic. I'm not becoming Farrah Fawcett here. If you stay beyond your welcome, it's for ego or money or because you can't exist without the limelight. I'm fine without it.

I'm a law-and-order girl: I like people who do the right thing.

They want to do the right thing, most people. For that little core that doesn't want to do the right thing and gets away with it routinely, most people want to see them get a good whupping. And I am your girl.

When I was a practising lawyer in the family court, there were too many judges who, when you left their courtroom, you didn't know whether you'd won or whether you'd lost.

A judge is supposed to be able to make a decision, and when you make a decision, very often one party - and very often both - are a little disappointed.

I just think I'm direct.

I would never interrogate a child or a spouse the way I would a litigant. People wouldn't want to be around you. You'd wind up all alone on an island.

When I go on vacation, I leave my house in total order: bills paid, garbage out, no milk in the refrigerator, mail done so that I can better negotiate what will await me.

Being a nurturer isn't being a moron.

Megyn Kelly is one of those rare women who seamlessly combines professional excellence and family. She doesn't need a catch phrase to define what she instinctively has accomplished. She just 'does it.'

Little things happen to us during the course of our lives when we were children that stay with us.

We don't take Sweet'n Lows from restaurants anymore. I don't stuff dinner rolls into my pocketbook.

This country has a wonderful spirit.

I go down to the gym unwashed, like something dragged in from behind a truck.

I set realistic goals consistent with my talents. I never, for instance, wanted to sit on an appellate court. I'm not an academic. Truth be told, I hate to do research. I have a practical mind, and I was well suited for the trial court bench, not the appellate.

Long before I was Judge Judy, when I was an unknown worker bee, I usually got what I wanted.

If you're going to spend your time, spend your time getting smarter.

I don't like to watch train wrecks.

While I sat in family court, I probably heard 20 or 25,000 cases. And I am sure, during the course of those cases, there were cases that I probably would've decided differently had I had either more time or been able to explore more. But all you can do as a judge is really give a case your best effort.

People are supposed to be responsible.

If you commit a crime, you maybe have to be haunted.

To be considered presidential timber, there has to be a measure in the way you present your argument.

I try to have the right thing happen at the end of the case, try to have the case have a moral compass to it, try to do a little teaching while I'm at it because that's the, you know, that's the preacher in me.

All the judges watched Judge Wapner. All America, at one point or another, watched Judge Wapner.

I never had an issue with gender.