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" I don't write scenes where one person is right and one person is wrong. It's very much by design that everyone has a point of view that you as an audience member can understand. "

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" Around me, there's always music playing. It just calms me down; it soothes me. It helps me write. It helps me with my mood. "

Courtney A. Kemp

Always

Playing

Music

" '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. "

" Being a writer is great because you get to come up with stuff. "

" Great partnerships thrive because the people need each other. "

" I'd say it's far more challenging to be female and be a showrunner. People are not surprised to see a black person running this show, but the female aspect is the thing that I get asked about. "

" Not many people get to create a television show that actually makes it on the air. "

" We use the word 'urban' to mean black or Latino, but that's not what the word means. It actually means 'from the city.' I'm not from the city. I'm from the suburbs of Connecticut. I grew up with mostly all white people. "

" 50 and I are extremely close, so all that social media drama? It's just for the show. "

" It's ridiculous that we let broadcast and cable shows compete against each other at the Emmys. They are not the same animal. "

" 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. "

" There's hip-hop music in 'Power,' but the show is not about the hip-hop industry. "

" I really try to plot in a fearless fashion. I try not to care about not knowing the answer before I get there; I just jump in first and see what happens. "

" 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. "

" My dad was born with no money. "

" When I was pitching 'Power,' I had an executive say, 'Well, I already have a black show.' He said that right to my face. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" I really do love male characters, in some ways, for the fact that they get surprised when they're vulnerable. Women are more surprised by their strength. "

" I very much want to write about some elements of my own growing up. "

" 50 Cent is a brilliant marketer. "

" Wherever I go, stuff accumulates. "

Courtney A. Kemp

Wherever

Stuff

" It was not something that ever occurred to me, to be able to be in TV. I was very lucky. "

Courtney A. Kemp

Lucky

" Every writer should be able to write anything if you do the research and you're sensitive enough to ask the questions. "

" I'm seeing more and more people of color do what I do as showrunners, and that's so great. I would love to get to the point where we don't have to talk about it anymore. "

" I had to figure out that finding my place was not about race but about creativity, and connecting with other artists helped me find my voice. "

Courtney A. Kemp

Place

Finding

" When we started on 'Power,' I was committed to respecting the differences among Spanish dialects: Dominican, Nuyorican, Mexican, etc. I wanted the language our characters spoke to be as specific as possible, to reflect New York as it is. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" Comedians are on the road so much that when they're just getting to act and sit in one place, they're really grateful and just ready. "

" The Shawshank Redemption' isn't a movie about a black guy and a white guy who become friends - it's a movie about freedom. At the end, the cathartic experience of seeing our own emotions reflected back to us, that's the purpose of storytelling. "