- New
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- Nov 07, 2020
Courtney A Kemp Quotes
Most Famous Courtney A Kemp Quotes of All Time!
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- Last Updated on May 30, 2021
- Best
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- Nov 07, 2020
I always like to write myself into a corner. I think the best stuff comes from only having a few ways out.
- Decision
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- Nov 07, 2020
'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.
- Mean
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- Nov 07, 2020
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.
- Dad
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- Nov 07, 2020
My dad was born with no money.
- Dance
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- Nov 07, 2020
My dad and his sister, who is no longer with us, used to dance on the streets for money. They had nothing.
- Dress
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- Nov 07, 2020
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.
- Knew
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- Nov 07, 2020
I knew I wanted to write professionally and get paid.
- Just
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- Nov 07, 2020
50 and I are extremely close, so all that social media drama? It's just for the show.
- Brilliant
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- Nov 07, 2020
50 Cent is a brilliant marketer.
- Opinion
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- Nov 07, 2020
There's this idea that you can have it all, but in my opinion, you can't - not if you're a perfectionist.
- Experience
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- Nov 07, 2020
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.
- Experience
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- Nov 07, 2020
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.
- Every Day
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- Nov 07, 2020
Knowing what I don't know helps me every day.
- Executing
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- Nov 07, 2020
If everyone knows the role they play, and they do their job - executing it well and with enthusiasm - it comes together successfully every time.
- Great
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- Nov 07, 2020
Great power is setting a goal, working hard for it, and achieving it in exactly the way you expected with no consequences and no remainders after the long division is done. But does that happen to anyone? The unexpected always hitches a ride along with everything you planned.
- Free
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- Nov 07, 2020
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.
- Me
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- Nov 07, 2020
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.
- Power
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- Nov 07, 2020
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.
- First
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- Nov 07, 2020
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.
- Language
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- Nov 07, 2020
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.
- People
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- Nov 07, 2020
I am tired of people using 'diverse' to mean 'of color.' That's not what that word means. 'Diversity' means people of all different races, all together - like a New York City subway.
- Experience
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- Nov 07, 2020
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.
- Love
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- Nov 07, 2020
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.
- Delivery
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- Nov 07, 2020
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.
- Character
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- Nov 07, 2020
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.
- Family
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- Nov 07, 2020
The only black folks in town when I was growing up were me and my cousins and one other family.
- First
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- Nov 07, 2020
50 Cent and I really started to bond over our love for music. The first conversations we had were about Curtis Mayfield.
- Like
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- Nov 07, 2020
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.
- Boss
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- Nov 07, 2020
The show runner's the boss until the network shows up. And then they're the boss, because it's their money.
- Fashion
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- Nov 07, 2020
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.
- Just
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- Nov 07, 2020
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.
- More
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- Nov 07, 2020
I want to tell more stories about lying, dual lives, self-deception - those are my favorites.
- Day
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- Nov 07, 2020
Ultimately, at the end of the day, taking a chance on 'Power' is taking a chance on me.
- Lie
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- Nov 07, 2020
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.
- Girl
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- Nov 07, 2020
When I was a little girl, my imagination was what helped me deal with some sort of negative elements in my childhood.
- Journalism
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- Nov 07, 2020
I thought I was going to be a professor; then I ran screaming from there into magazine journalism.
- New
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- Nov 07, 2020
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.
- Good
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- Nov 07, 2020
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.
- Day
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- Nov 07, 2020
I say a prayer several times a day about what I can control and what I can't control.
- Me
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- Nov 07, 2020
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.
- Nov 07, 2020
Wherever I go, stuff accumulates.
- People
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- Nov 07, 2020
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.
- Home
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- Nov 07, 2020
I think television is about the characters you want to see again, and so you want to invite these people into your home. And certainly, seeing them get into bad situations and then watching them have to get themselves out, that's always super satisfying.
- Design
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- Nov 07, 2020
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.
- Matter
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- Nov 07, 2020
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.
- Life
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- Nov 07, 2020
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.
- Doing
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- Nov 07, 2020
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.
- Love
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- Nov 07, 2020
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.
- Black
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- Nov 07, 2020
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.
- Nov 07, 2020
I want to be a strong voice, period.
- More
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- Nov 07, 2020
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.
- I Am
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- Nov 07, 2020
I am a black woman, and I'm proud of that, but as a showrunner, I want to think about what makes me unique beyond my race.
- Everything
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- Nov 07, 2020
I always wanted to make a show that had everything I wanted to watch, as opposed to just one or two things.
- Brother
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- Nov 07, 2020
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.
- Matter
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- Nov 07, 2020
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.
- Me
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- Nov 07, 2020
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.
- Face
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- Nov 07, 2020
When I was pitching 'Power,' I had an executive say, 'Well, I already have a black show.' He said that right to my face.
- I Am
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- Nov 07, 2020
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.
- Enough
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- Nov 07, 2020
Every writer should be able to write anything if you do the research and you're sensitive enough to ask the questions.
- Go
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- Nov 07, 2020
The story always leads you where it's supposed to go.
- Done
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- Nov 07, 2020
I always ask the actors, 'What have you never done before?'
- Animal
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- Nov 07, 2020
It's ridiculous that we let broadcast and cable shows compete against each other at the Emmys. They are not the same animal.
- Love
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- Nov 07, 2020
I love Pusha T and The Clipse.
- Hip-Hop
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- Nov 07, 2020
There's hip-hop music in 'Power,' but the show is not about the hip-hop industry.
- More
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- Nov 07, 2020
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?'
- Surprised
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- Nov 07, 2020
When I watch television, I want to be surprised.
- Father
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- Nov 07, 2020
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.
- Look
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- Nov 07, 2020
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.
- Good
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- Nov 07, 2020
The revolution is that we can be anything. We don't have to be one thing or the other. The idea that it is my responsibility to represent only good black people... I mean, what are you talking about? That's not a character - that's a polemic.
- Job
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- Nov 07, 2020
You don't keep your job if you don't make a great show.
- Black
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- Nov 07, 2020
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.'
- Everything
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- Nov 07, 2020
God is in control of everything.
- Failure
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- Nov 07, 2020
There are so many different things that create an alchemy of success. Just like there are so many different things that create an alchemy of a failure.
- Ever
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- Nov 07, 2020
It was not something that ever occurred to me, to be able to be in TV. I was very lucky.
- Black
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- Nov 07, 2020
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.
- People
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- Nov 07, 2020
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.
- City
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- Nov 07, 2020
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.
- People
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- Nov 07, 2020