Top 45 Courtney A. Kemp Quotes

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.

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

There’s hip-hop music in ‘Power,’ but the show is not about the hip-hop industry.

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.

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

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.

When human beings say they have power, it always makes me laugh a little bit.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

If everyone knows the role they play, and they do their job – executing it well and with enthusiasm – it comes together successfully every time.

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.

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.

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?’

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.

I always ask the actors, ‘What have you never done before?’

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

When I watch television, I want to be surprised.

I knew I wanted to write professionally and get paid.

I’m from an upper-middle class background. But because there was no one of my race where I grew up, I was very isolated. I felt different from everybody else.

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.

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.

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.

My dad was born with no money.

I very much want to write about some elements of my own growing up.

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

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.

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.

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.

Ultimately, at the end of the day, taking a chance on ‘Power’ is taking a chance on me.

If you are other, you don’t think twice about hiring people who are other.

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

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

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.

My dad and his sister, who is no longer with us, used to dance on the streets for money. They had nothing.

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.

The story always leads you where it’s supposed to go.

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.

I remember watching episodes of ‘The Sopranos’ and being filled with dread knowing what was coming or anticipating what was coming. I don’t think that that’s always a bad thing. I think sometimes the audience needs a little catharsis held away from them.

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.

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.

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