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" The small moments I've had to talk with President Obama, I've told him, 'I get it.' His presidency was in some ways almost overshadowed by the fact that he was the first black president. "

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" When you're in the middle of it, when you're a kid growing up, you don't think, 'This is my first heartbreak.' You just think, 'My heart is broken.' But then as a parent, you look back, and you see your child go through his or her first heartbreak, and you're realizing, 'Oh my God, this is her first heartbreak.' "

Kenya Barris

Think

God

Broken

" I love Donald Glover. "

" Comedy used to be a vehicle for change. Now, comedy has gotten to this quirky, nonsensical place, which I enjoy. But I do think there is room for discussion-based humor. We can tell those stories in a way that feels edifying. "

" You get a little older, and you start understanding the world in a different way and what you don't have control over and what you do have control over. "

" I am what I am as a writer because of Norman Lear and Spike Lee. Norman Lear in particular. "

" I'm not for having to support everything that's black, because I definitely don't. But I do feel like it is imperative for us to see that we are not a monolithic people. "

Kenya Barris

Black

Support

" What I did not want to be was a fad, because fads die. I had one of the George Michael Wham! neon-colored sweatshirts, and I thought it would never go out of style. Fads die. "

" Laurence Fishburne - he's a great actor, but he dances and sings, too? He can just do everything. "

" I've found that the more honest and true you are and can talk about a character and people's experiences, it's less ostracizing. It actually has the opposite effect than one would think. It makes the characters and the story more inclusive. "

" Jill Soloway is a friend of mine. She does 'Transparent,' and she's amazingly funny and brilliant and bright. And I love her show. "

" I'm a huge fan of writing for people rather than writing and then trying to wedge people in. I'd love to know who the people are before I can write for them. For me, it's a much more organic way to create characters. "

Kenya Barris

Love

Writing

" After the first couple of years of on 'Black-ish,' my wife and I actually broke up. We got back together, and it was this really, really difficult time for me. "

Kenya Barris

Together

Back

" Actors are magical people. They can take words you wrote and say them in a way that, although you thought the line was good when you wrote it, it's fantastic when it comes out of their mouth. "

" As a creative, you have to be your truest form. You can't worry about fitting into whatever boxes people want to put you in. "

" 'A Different World,' for me, was in a lot of ways responsible for me going to college. I wanted to go to a black college, and I wanted to get out of Los Angeles. It's just a natural part of all of our journeys, that idea of leaving home. "

Kenya Barris

Black

World

" When I was growing up, I never saw couples fight on the family sitcoms I loved to watch. Subsequently, when tough times arose in my own relationship, I wasn't prepared and felt so isolated and alone. Marital issues weren't a part of the narrative that television told me was a 'working relationship.' "

" I think that's the key to any artistic endeavor: You want it to feel fresh and not have people look at it like it's re-creation of something else unless it's done in a really strong way. "

" For me, one of the big things I really worried about a lot was nuclear war growing up. "

" Everybody - every single person - has a story. Find yours and tell it in your voice. "

" 'Black-ish' is a show that has spoken to all different types of people and brought them closer as a community, and I'm so proud of the series. "

" My wife is a doctor, and we had a decent life financially. My kids were going to nice schools and had nannies. We weren't rich, but we were better off than I was growing up. And I looked around, and I was like, 'Who are these people?' It was the opposite of what I remembered growing up. "

" Most importantly, I want my kids to be happy. You're only as happy as your saddest kid. "

" No one's pro-police brutality. "

Kenya Barris

Brutality

" Writers' rooms are terrifying. You take someone whose never done this before, and this is their life's dream that is about to happen or not about to happen - that is an amazing amount of pressure to have. "

" Black, white, rich, poor - we galvanize through the hard times. We really see it happen in relationships. In the best and worst of those moments, you come together, and you look for your tribe. "

" No civil rights movement has gotten anywhere without the help of white liberals. "

" Honestly, I regret not having spanked my kids. "

" I believe comedy is a really good lens to filter serious issues through. If people are laughing, they don't necessarily realize until they stop laughing that they just took something in that's going to start a conversation. "

" And I feel like, as a black man within black culture, I know very well firsthand - as do my parents and my grandparents and great-grandparents - we're used to things not going our way. "

" Sometimes you realize that life isn't defined by the good times. "