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" Great partnerships thrive because the people need each other. "
Courtney A. Kemp
Thrive
Great
Partnerships
Related Quotes:
" There's hip-hop music in 'Power,' but the show is not about the hip-hop industry. "
Courtney A. Kemp
Power
Show
Industry
" The impetus for 'Power' was me writing about my dad, who was an advertising executive and very interested in image. He thought that perception was reality and what people thought of you was what was real about you. "
Courtney A. Kemp
Reality
People
Writing
" I always like to write myself into a corner. I think the best stuff comes from only having a few ways out. "
Courtney A. Kemp
Always
Write
Think
" As a woman, I don't feel like I have a responsibility to create better female characters. I feel like I have a responsibility to create good characters. Because the truth is, those kinds of things ghettoize us even more as writers. "
Courtney A. Kemp
Truth
Feel
Woman
" I worked at 'Mademoiselle,' and then it shut, and I worked at 'GQ' for three years, during which I was freelancing. I wrote for 'Vibe.' I did music reviews. I wrote for 'Time Out.' I was desperate to get into 'Entertainment Weekly' or 'New York Magazine.' Like, desperate. "
Courtney A. Kemp
Three
New
Music
" I had very much wanted to be the very first black female editor-in-chief of 'Vogue.' Barring that, I wanted to work at 'Entertainment Weekly.' "
Courtney A. Kemp
Entertainment
Work
Black
" 'Power' would never have gotten on the air if the folks at Starz weren't saying to themselves, 'This is an underserved audience.' It was a financial decision, not a benevolent decision based on a need to change the industry. "
Courtney A. Kemp
Saying
Change
Decision
" My dad was born with no money. "
Courtney A. Kemp
Born
Money
Dad
" When I first arrived in Los Angeles from New York in 2004 to try to break into television, I couldn't believe how segregated it was - how many neighborhoods were nearly all-white or all-black or -Asian or -Latino. "
Courtney A. Kemp
Try
New York
New
" The revolution is that we can be anything. We don't have to be one thing or the other. The idea that it is my responsibility to represent only good black people... I mean, what are you talking about? That's not a character - that's a polemic. "
Courtney A. Kemp
Responsibility
Character
Good
" My experience as a black woman in the industry is simply that often I was the only one in the room. Often I would be the only woman and the only person of color. Sometimes I would be one of several women but the only person of color. Sometimes I would be one of several people of color, but the only woman. "
Courtney A. Kemp
Women
Experience
People
" It's ridiculous that we let broadcast and cable shows compete against each other at the Emmys. They are not the same animal. "
Courtney A. Kemp
Animal
Other
Ridiculous
" 50 and I are extremely close, so all that social media drama? It's just for the show. "
Courtney A. Kemp
Social Media
Social
Show
" I don't want to be seen in a way where all I can do is what people expect of me. "
Courtney A. Kemp
People
I Can
Want
" I called my show 'Power' because, for me, the whole series is about the way my main character, Ghost, is power-less over his circumstances, even though he has almost endless access to money and guns. "
Courtney A. Kemp
Ghost
Way
Power
" New York is the center of the world. I grew up in Connecticut, outside of the city, and my father commuted to the city for work. "
Courtney A. Kemp
Father
New York
World
" When it comes to power as it functions between humans, it all comes down to desire. If you know what someone wants, you can control them. It is as simple as that. And the reverse is also true: If you have control over your own desires, no one will ever own you. As humans, we are plagued with desire - it consumes us, it fuels us, it destroys us. "
Courtney A. Kemp
Power
True
You
" Great power is setting a goal, working hard for it, and achieving it in exactly the way you expected with no consequences and no remainders after the long division is done. But does that happen to anyone? The unexpected always hitches a ride along with everything you planned. "
Courtney A. Kemp
Long
Great
Unexpected
" The only black folks in town when I was growing up were me and my cousins and one other family. "
Courtney A. Kemp
Me
Family
Black
" I very much want to write about some elements of my own growing up. "
Courtney A. Kemp
Want
Growing Up
My Own
" Every writer should be able to write anything if you do the research and you're sensitive enough to ask the questions. "
Courtney A. Kemp
Write
Questions
Enough
" Writers are, for the most part, crazy people. We're like Hephaestus of the forge. We're gnarled. We're curled over. We walk with a limp. "
Courtney A. Kemp
Crazy
People
Over
" Wherever I go, stuff accumulates. "
Courtney A. Kemp
Go
Wherever
Stuff
" There's a difference between talent and skill. You might have writing talent, but skill is learned. You have to practice. I remain teachable. I was sure that I didn't know everything. People who work with me will tell you I don't think I know everything. I watch people sink around me thinking that they knew everything. "
Courtney A. Kemp
Work
Writing
People
" When I was a little girl, my imagination was what helped me deal with some sort of negative elements in my childhood. "
Courtney A. Kemp
Imagination
Me
Girl
" In college, I didn't know whether to hang out with the black kids or the white kids, and then I found the theatre kids, and I was like, 'Oh, it doesn't matter.' We were all weird and listening to Morrissey and wearing Doc Martens so that was my tribe. "
Courtney A. Kemp
College
Listening
Theatre
" Humans are powerless, and even in our exercise of free will, either the Universe is gonna get down with your plan, or it isn't. "
Courtney A. Kemp
Exercise
Down
Free
" When I'm at work, I want to be with my daughter, and when I'm with my daughter, I probably should be working, and it just is what it is. "
Courtney A. Kemp
Work
Want
Just
" The baseline character in a lot of Western literature is a man. So we, as women, do a lot of suspending of our disbelief to experience a novel or a play or a movie through that male character. "
Courtney A. Kemp
Women
Character
Play
" When you write a show, every character is you to some extent. "
Courtney A. Kemp
Write
Some
You