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" 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

True

You

Reality

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

Courtney A. Kemp

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

" If you look at the back pages of 'New York Times Magazine,' and they talk about these 6.5-million-dollar condos with a great view, like you're going to pay for a great view. Well, the top floor of the projects have a great view, too. "

" 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. "

" There's always going to be a part of me that wants an Emmy. Truthfully, I'm probably more motivated by people being entertained. I'm more motivated by people being like, 'Oh snap! Did you see that?' "

Courtney A. Kemp

People

" 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 you write a show, every character is you to some extent. "

" Wherever I go, stuff accumulates. "

Courtney A. Kemp

Wherever

Stuff

" 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.' "

" People are realizing that there is a financial consequence to not opening doors. It doesn't mean that they are any more inclusive in their hearts - it means they're more inclusive in their wallets. "

" 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. "

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

" 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. "

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

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

" I always like to write myself into a corner. I think the best stuff comes from only having a few ways out. "

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

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

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

Courtney A. Kemp

Lucky

" I knew I wanted to write professionally and get paid. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

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

" 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. "

" 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. "

" 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. "

" I want to tell more stories about lying, dual lives, self-deception - those are my favorites. "

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