Janet Reno

I collected child support in Dade County, and they wrote a rap song about me, so the kids knew about it, and they started asking me questions about child support. What happens if she wastes the money? What happens if he doesn't pay? And I answered the questions.

We have initiated programs for re-entry offenders, since some 500,000 to 600,000 offenders will come out of prison each year for the next three or four years. We want to have positive alternatives when they come back to the community.

There is so much to do, and I want to continue my efforts.

We cannot forget the need to use the law as a shield, but we must remember other forces of the law.

There are those who profess to support law enforcement but who have attempted to undermine the efforts of hard-working officers who make difficult decisions.

A cop by themselves on every corner is not going to make that much difference.

Let us develop an agenda for children that says we can do something about teen pregnancy. Let us make sure that parents are old enough, wise enough, and financially able to take care of their children.

I didn't like the Feds coming to town when I was in Miami, telling me what to do. I didn't like them coming to town and thinking that they knew more about Miami than I do.

I have learned that raising children is the single most difficult thing in the world to do. It takes hard work, love, luck, and a lot of energy, and it is the most rewarding experience that you can ever have.

Most lawyers aren't trial lawyers. Most lawyers, even trial lawyers, don't get their problems solved in a courtroom. We like to go to court. It seems heroic to go to court. We think we're the new, great advocates, better than anything we've seen on TV, and we come home exhilarated by having gone to court.

Police and prosecutors and the courts have got to talk together.

My father was born in Denmark. He came to this country when he was 12 years old.

One of the reasons I love the law is because I was raised in family - my grandfather was a lawyer, but more importantly, my grandmother was his secretary. And she taught me that lawyers were some of the most civil, most courteous - and in those days, most courtly - people that she knew.

As a child, I wanted to be a lawyer because I thought lawyers and the law were wonderful. But they are more wonderful, I think, than I had thought.

I was personally opposed to the death penalty, and yet I think I have probably asked for the death penalty more than most people in the United States.

I just try to do my best and make the best judgments I can.

If somebody thinks I have an integrity problem, then the honest thing to do is to tell me what they think it is and let me address it.

The law as a profession has provided me with more satisfaction than I ever dreamed.

I'm vitally interested in cyber crime and in preparing law enforcement for a time when crime is international in its origins and its consequences.

We must try to understand the true weight of law enforcement officers' burdens.

The good lawyer is the great salesman.

I would like to use the law of this land to do everything I possibly can to protect America's children from abuse and violence and to give to each of them the opportunity to grow to be strong, healthy and self-sufficient citizens of this country.

I'm interested in elder justice and what we can do about elder abuse and neglect.

My earnest hope is that what we started in terms of building partnerships with communities across America will continue, that we will continue our efforts to reduce crime and violence.

Too many Americans mistrust their government. And unnecessary government secrecy feeds this mistrust.

While service in the Department of Justice is itself one of the highest forms of public service, the Department further strides to increase access to justice for all and to strengthen our communities.

Stereotypes should never influence policy or public opinion.

The first job I ever had in my life was in the Dade County Sheriff's Office in the Identification Bureau in the summer that I graduated from high school and was getting ready to go to college.

We've got to make sure that the young, violent, serious juvenile offender is punished, that it's fair punishment, that it's punishment that fits the crime and that is understood and that is anticipated and expected.

U.S. attorneys have taught me a lot over the years, and in the Southern district of Florida, they have been to me partners.

Schools can do extraordinary things given the chance; teachers can do remarkable things if we eliminate the paperwork that sometimes binds them and give them a chance to really teach in our schools.

Good, better, best. Don't ever rest, until good is better and better is best.

I'm humbled by the honor that President Clinton has done me in nominatinq me as Attorney General of the United States, and I'm going to do my very best to deserve his confidence.

What good is telling America's children that they will have equal opportunity for education if they don't have the skills that will even get them to the point of benefiting from education, because they didn't have the child care, the health care that would enable them to grow as strong and constructive human beings?

I think, clearly, where you have a situation in which the Solicitor General tells me, 'I cannot in good faith argue a certainly legal position,' and if the president told us to argue that position, we would have to tell him, 'No, we can't do that, Mr. President.'

In 1960, when I graduated from college, people told me a woman couldn't go to law school. And when I graduated from law school, people told me, 'Law firms won't hire you.'

America, in all its institutions, whether it be the family or government, has forgotten and neglected its children.

The keystone to justice is the belief that the legal system treats all fairly.

Draw great strength from your family and give in turn to those who come after you.

Everybody should want to make sure that we have the cyber tools necessary to investigate cyber crimes, and to be prepared to defend against them and to bring people to justice who commit it.

We want to look at everything we can do that's right and proper under federal law, and with federal laws to see that the children of America are given a chance to grow as strong, constructive, healthy human beings. It's the best investment we can possibly make in America.

While I'm the Attorney General, we will address each issue with one question: What's the right thing to do?

I love lawyers. And I like to talk to lawyers, and I like to engage in a spirited discussion with lawyers.

We've got to look to our educational programs and focus on doing what we can to stem violence in the schools.

It helps to know how to lose. You know it is not the end of the world, and you pick yourself up and move ahead.

Diversity is valued, and it is prized. We learn to appreciate each other and each other's struggles. From diversity, we draw our enormous and our lasting strength.

We tried our best for the longest time to negotiate a peaceful resolution to the matter, and at each step, we were thwarted by those that said, No, we will not turn the boy over to his father.

If you have a good community behind you and a good family supporting you, then, when the buck stops with you, there is the strength of that community and that family to draw upon.

This is a beautiful country. Each of us has a favorite river, a mountain, just a patch of sky for some of us. I want to use the law to make sure that the waters, the land, and the skies of this nation are protected.

I made a promise to myself when I graduated from law school that I would never do anything that I didn't enjoy doing, and almost every day of the year since that June of 1963, I have awakened glad that I was going to work, glad that I was going to court, glad that I was going to grapple with a problem.

At this moment I do not have a personal relationship with a computer.

Though the Attorney General of the United States carries many responsibilities and undertakes many tasks, there can be none more important than the pursuit of civil rights on behalf of all the people of this country.

I want to do what I can to make the law make sense to citizens and businesses alike. I want the laws to assist them in worthwhile endeavors, not to stand as bureaucratic obstacles.

I think that a woman's right to choose should be protected. I think it should be protected from physical conduct that prevents that right to choose from being freely exercised.

All lawyers are going to have to - if we really want to attain civil justice - address the issue of how complicated we have made the laws: what we have done to ensnarl the American people in bureaucratic rules and regulations that make access to services or compliance with the law sometimes difficult, if not impossible.

I know from personal experience what it's like to be discriminated against. I remember people telling me, 'Ladies don't become lawyers,' and now I look at America and know what can be done.

If the end brings me out right, what people said about me won't make any difference, and if the end brings me out wrong, 10 angels saying I was right won't make any difference.

You are not going to put 100,000 police officers on the streets overnight and do the right job. To put them on the streets, to see that they're properly trained; you have to do it in an orderly way over a period of time.

I think lawyers who engage in pro bono service to protect those who cannot help themselves are truly the heroes and the heroines of the legal profession.

Until the day I die, or until the day I can't think anymore, I want to be involved in the issues that I care about.

I worked with some wonderful people, tried my best and I feel comfortable.

Under a death penalty statute that is going to stand up to constitutional muster, you look at the aggravating circumstances and the mitigating circumstances.

Peer mediation is a chance for students to work with other students to help them resolve problems, arguments, disagreements without having to get the teacher or the administration involved.

I hope I will be a good Attorney General, but one of the things that will be as important to me is to know that I made a commitment to my family and honored it, a commitment that has been repaid 10,000 times over.

I want there to be a real partnership between the Department of Justice in Washington and U.S. attorneys.

I think the answer to civil disorder in America, the answer to police problems in America, the answer to jail overcrowding and all the problems that we see is - the one answer is that government must go back to its people.

I'm not fancy. I'm what I appear to be.

The lawyers who really begin to address the problems of their clients address them without recourse to our courts, although that recourse is absolutely essential in providing leverage.

Juveniles as well as adults need to know they're going to be punished for their violent acts.

We've got to understand that the ages of zero to three are the most formative years of a person's life, the time they learn the concept of reward and punishment and develop a conscience, and that 50 percent of all learned human response is learned in the first year of life.

I think one of the keys to any crime-prevention program that's got to be developed is to focus on punishment - to let people know that there is a sanction and a punishment for hurting others.

Do and act on what you believe to be right, and you'll wake up the next morning feeling good about yourself.

I'm a scuba diver but not certified.

I would like to explore and see this country. I have had so many opportunities to see it from the air! I would like to climb the mountains that I wished I could climb at the time but had to get back to Washington.

We must honor, protect and support our police officers and their families every day of the year.

One of the most important parts of my life has been community.

I want to make sure there are no gatekeepers at the AG's door, and that anybody in the Department - they may have to come relatively late in the evening, just judging by the schedules to date - but if somebody has suggestions for how to make this a better department, that they know I am available.

In 1960, I earned my Chemistry Degree from Cornell University.

I had concluded when I was the prosecutor that I would vote against the death penalty if I were in the legislature but that I could ask for it when I was satisfied as to guilt.

The law is very special to me.

Anybody that thought that I tried to protect the president has forgotten that I asked for the expansion of the Monica Lewinsky matter.

It is the police of America who are on the front lines, who are on the streets, who are in the daily contact with American citizens, who translate the dreams of American citizens when they succeed and frustrate the dreams when they fail.

Each generation looks to its children to keep our society moving and to make life better.

The president really shouldn't be involved in terms of dictating what course the investigation should take.

We want to continue the efforts against domestic violence and spread the drug courts, and develop real effective means of providing treatment for drug abusers without having to have them arrested.

My mother taught us to play baseball, to bake a cake, to play fair - she beat the living daylights out of us sometimes, and she loved us with all her heart; she taught her favorite poets, and there is no child care in the world that will ever be a substitute for what that lady was in our life.

I think that affirmative action programs can be very important.

Lawyers are very important people to me.

We're building on an international network with many others for the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act. There are so many things we can do to carry forward policies.

Simply put, if we can reduce the risk while increasing protection during the course of a young person's life, we can prevent problems and promote the healthy development of our children, our families, our economy, and the institutions we hold dear.

What makes our country unique is its commitment to being open, to making its leaders accountable.

We, the American people, owe the nation's police officers our deepest gratitude, our best efforts, and our strong support, for they have done so much for us against such great odds.

We recognize that violence is a learned behavior. One of the best classrooms for learning violence is in the home.

I have been surrounded by some of the smartest, brightest, most caring lawyers, by agents who are willing to risk their lives for others, by support staff that are willing to work as hard as they can.

Being a lawyer is not merely a vocation. It is a public trust, and each of us has an obligation to give back to our communities.

I would like to visit with people who are so interesting and so... and there are so many wonderful people out there that I would love to have the chance to talk to for a longer time.

There may sometimes be a mistake, but I think that the citizens of America who are sworn to uphold their duty in a jury setting are going to try to do their best to do that regardless of the consequences.

People should look at the government as 'us,' not as 'them' and not in terror.

I think police officers can work with social workers and public health nurses to do so much in terms of addressing the problem of American families, of children in American families as a whole, and giving them an opportunity to get off to a fresh start, to become self-sufficient, to lead safe, constructive lives.

It was not the president's responsibility to run a law enforcement operation. It was ours.