Great partnerships thrive because the people need each other.
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.
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 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.
The only black folks in town when I was growing up were me and my cousins and one other family.
Knowing what I don't know helps me every day.
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.
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.
The show runner's the boss until the network shows up. And then they're the boss, because it's their money.
50 Cent and I really started to bond over our love for music. The first conversations we had were about Curtis Mayfield.
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.
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.
If everyone knows the role they play, and they do their job - executing it well and with enthusiasm - it comes together successfully every time.
I love 'Archer.' That's one of the best-written shows out there.
When human beings say they have power, it always makes me laugh a little bit.
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.
If you wanna be your own boss, you gotta work your way up - have the skills.
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.
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 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.
I say a prayer several times a day about what I can control and what I can't control.
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.
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.
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.
'Power' is not a black show. It's not a white show. It's a New York show.
I always like to write myself into a corner. I think the best stuff comes from only having a few ways out.
'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.
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.
My dad was born with no money.
My dad and his sister, who is no longer with us, used to dance on the streets for money. They had nothing.
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.
I knew I wanted to write professionally and get paid.
50 and I are extremely close, so all that social media drama? It's just for the show.
50 Cent is a brilliant marketer.
There's this idea that you can have it all, but in my opinion, you can't - not if you're a perfectionist.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
When you write a show, every character is you to some extent.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I want to tell more stories about lying, dual lives, self-deception - those are my favorites.
Ultimately, at the end of the day, taking a chance on 'Power' is taking a chance on me.
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.
When I was a little girl, my imagination was what helped me deal with some sort of negative elements in my childhood.
