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

Courtney A. Kemp

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" There's this idea that you can have it all, but in my opinion, you can't - not if you're a perfectionist. "

Courtney A. Kemp

" I think it's really cool that someone could have ovaries and the presidency. Growing up, I thought I could never be president because I was black and female. Now I know that's wrong. Within my own lifetime - that's different. Within my lifetime, interracial couples are more common. Within my own lifetime, biracial folks are able to claim that. "

Courtney A. Kemp

" 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

" I thought I was going to be a professor; then I ran screaming from there into magazine journalism. "

Courtney A. Kemp

" It... does... not... have... to... be... pointed out all the time. Like, 'Isn't it great that you're black, and you're a woman?' Isn't it great that the show's good? I would just love for it not to be a thing - for it just to be, like, super norm. "

Courtney A. Kemp

" 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. "

Courtney A. Kemp

" I always wanted to make a show that had everything I wanted to watch, as opposed to just one or two things. "

Courtney A. Kemp

" 50 Cent and I really started to bond over our love for music. The first conversations we had were about Curtis Mayfield. "

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

" Show-running is a very difficult job that includes so many responsibilities; I'm working with the actors, working with directors, writing, making decisions like, 'What fabric is that sofa gonna be?' "

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

" 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

" 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. "

Courtney A. Kemp

" Obviously I'm not from 50's background - I'm from Westport, Connecticut, which is as far away from his background as you can get, right? Growing up in Westport, for a long time I was the only black person living there for miles. "

Courtney A. Kemp

" 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

" My dad was born with no money. "

Courtney A. Kemp

" 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. "

Courtney A. Kemp

" I am not going to say that only people of color can write people of color, because that means only white people can write white people, and that's not OK. "

Courtney A. Kemp

" 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. "

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

Courtney A. Kemp

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

Courtney A. Kemp

" 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. "

Courtney A. Kemp

" I say a prayer several times a day about what I can control and what I can't control. "

Courtney A. Kemp

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

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

" 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

" What I'm about to say won't be popular, but it's true: If being a television showrunner is the job you want, and you are a woman, I would not suggest you have children. The reality is that you just cannot do both well. "

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

" 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