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" I think as long as I can tell you a story about people that you understand, it doesn't matter if you don't like what they do; you understand why they did it. "

Courtney A. Kemp

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" I always ask the actors, 'What have you never done before?' "

Courtney A. Kemp

" My parents were 30 years older than I was, and my parents had my brother and I ten years apart. My parents grew up in segregation, and they both lived in all-black neighborhoods and grew up with large black families. I didn't have any of that, and I didn't understand feeling so differently and being treated so differently. "

Courtney A. Kemp

" Being a showrunner is doing a bit of everything. It's not just writing. It's also management: managing actors, managing producers, managing a crew, being kind to people, being a good boss, observing deadlines. "

Courtney A. Kemp

" 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

" When people watch 'Power' and they find out the showrunner is black, it's not surprising. What is surprising is that I am a woman and my background is not particularly urban. "

Courtney A. Kemp

" 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

" 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

" 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

" 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

" If you wanna be your own boss, you gotta work your way up - have the skills. "

Courtney A. Kemp

" If I weren't a showrunner, I'd be a much more accomplished mother; if I were not a mother, I would be a much more accomplished showrunner. I have to be okay with getting a B in both. "

Courtney A. Kemp

" When you pretend to be an authority on everything, it forces your subordinates to defer to your opinion - which may not be the most informed in the room. If you have humility concerning the gaps in your experience or ability, it allows others to shine. "

Courtney A. Kemp

" Any underrepresented audience loves to see themselves on TV, but what's more important is that we're writing about universal themes - good versus evil, can you change yourself? These themes resonate for everyone. "

Courtney A. Kemp

" 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. "

Courtney A. Kemp

" 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

" Wherever I go, stuff accumulates. "

Courtney A. Kemp

" 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

" 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

" The only black folks in town when I was growing up were me and my cousins and one other family. "

Courtney A. Kemp

" 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

" There are some aspects of the story of 'Power' that clearly are about race in the sense that any one of us now who's black and was raised in this country was raised with a lie, which is, 'You can never be president.' That's not true. "

Courtney A. Kemp

" 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

" I first became a showrunner at 36 years old. I had no experience doing this job, which is as complicated and multi-faceted as anything I'd ever tried. "

Courtney A. Kemp

" You don't keep your job if you don't make a great show. "

Courtney A. Kemp

" As a writer of fiction, you don't ever want to limit the characters you create to the life you've lived. That's insanity to me. "

Courtney A. Kemp

" My dad was very, very invested in image. He felt that as a black person, the thing you could control was how did you look, how did you dress, how did you sound, how did you smell, how did you act. All of that stuff that you could control would absolutely have a strong impact on your access. "

Courtney A. Kemp

" 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

" 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

" When I watch television, I want to be surprised. "

Courtney A. Kemp

" In 2011, when my father passed away - I had my daughter first; I had her on January 24, and I had a seizure during the delivery. I lived through that, and five weeks later, my father died suddenly of a heart attack, and I lived through that. And then my daughter had surgery, and I lived through that. "

Courtney A. Kemp