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.

TV was not in my future, not in my mind's eye.

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.'

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 that if I worked hard, I could have both - I could have a family, because that was important to me, and I could have a career.

It took them 13 years to get O. J. Simpson, but they got him. What goes around comes around.

Don't pee on my leg and tell me it's raining.

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.

I don't know where, or by whom, Judge Wapner was raised, but my parents taught me, when you don't have something nice to say about someone, say nothing.

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 think that you're supposed to know when it's time to say goodbye.

I never don't have a good time. Even when I go to work with a cold or a sore throat, as soon as I hit the mark and walk out that door, everything else is gone, and I'm up.

Remember, a Trojan is more than a horse.

I've had an absolutely magical run.

I can't stand stupid, and I can't stand slow.

I eat liars for breakfast.

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.

Cameras should be the norm everywhere. It should be in every courtroom so that the proceedings are taken down and recorded just like stenography.

Working parents bring a certain amount of guilt to their relationship with their children.

I don't have two different personalities. I am what I am.

People in the U.S. pay a great deal of money to support their judiciary, and they have an actual right to see how it functions.

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.

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

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

Nothing in my early childhood suggested to anyone - except maybe my father - that one day I would be standing here and be known simply as Judge Judy.

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

I left family court for the vagaries of TV and said to myself, 'Judy, what the hell are you thinking?' It seems like only yesterday.

So we want to free the women of America? You know what would free the women of America? Make men accept responsibility for birth control.

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 don't like to rule by committee. I like sort of an autocratic way of dealing with things.

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

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

You lock your windows before you leave. You put on an alarm if you live in the country because you know that there are bad people out there. Well, in this Internet age, you know that there are bad people out there. And no matter what you do, those bad people are going to get into your house.

This country has a wonderful spirit.

I think that there is a difference between men and women as a warrior and a nurturer... It's innate.

Uh' is not an answer.

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.

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

I don't like to watch train wrecks.

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

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.

I really believe if you give people a product that couples entertainment with a little bit of education, a soft glove and sense of humor - especially about a subject people have begun to feel very frustrated about, which is the legal system - then you have a formula for success.

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.

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

I exercise, and I eat reasonably, and I don't want to look at myself being out of shape. That would depress me.

Never let anyone or anything define your value or limit your dream.

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

It's nice to leave on top.