Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said Sunday that she and her unlikely friend Justice Antonin Scalia “disagreed now and then” but even so, “we were best buddies.”

Scalia was found dead Saturday at the age of 79. He and Ginsburg differed greatly in ideologies, but bonded over a shared love of the opera and “our reverence for the Constitution and the institution we serve,” Ginsburg said.

The justice added that her pal made her better at her job.

“From our years together at the D.C. Circuit, we were best buddies,” she wrote. “We disagreed now and then, but when I wrote for the Court and received a Scalia dissent, the opinion ultimately released was notably better than my initial circulation.”

Read more from our partners at NBC News

Get our Politics Newsletter. The headlines out of Washington never seem to slow. Subscribe to The D.C. Brief to make sense of what matters most. Please enter a valid email address. Sign Up Now Check the box if you do not wish to receive promotional offers via email from TIME. You can unsubscribe at any time. By signing up you are agreeing to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Thank you! For your security, we've sent a confirmation email to the address you entered. Click the link to confirm your subscription and begin receiving our newsletters. If you don't get the confirmation within 10 minutes, please check your spam folder.

Contact us at letters@time.com.