Jenji Kohan Quotes

• There's more to us than the moment we made a bad decision.

  Jenji Kohan

  Decision, Moments, Bad Decision

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• If you go to a network and say, "I wanna do prison stories about black women and Latino women and old women," you're not gonna make a sale. But, if you've got this blonde girl going to prison, you can get in there, and then you can tell all the stories. I just thought it was a terrific gateway drug into all the things I wanted to get into.

  Jenji Kohan

  Girl, Drug, Black

  Source: collider.com

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• First of all, I find everything funny, which is upsetting to my children sometimes, and to people in my life, in general.

  Jenji Kohan

  Children, People, Upset

  Source: collider.com

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• I think shows that are completely dramatic are a lie. People use humor to cope. That is how we deal with things. In the darkest situations, there's humor. And if you don't show that, you're not being true to real life.

  Jenji Kohan

  Lying, Real, Thinking

  Source: collider.com

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• But, I like the challenge of, "How can we stretch this out? Where can we go with it?" It's an open road, especially at Netflix. You can take it anywhere you want.

  Jenji Kohan

  Challenges, Netflix, Want

  Source: collider.com

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• You want everyone to be a full character. No one is just evil, or very few people are, hopefully. They're characters, so you want to flush them out. You've got to show all sides of them. There is definitely an antagonistic relationship between guards and prisoners, and I do think it flares up.

  Jenji Kohan

  Character, Thinking, Flare Up

  Source: collider.com

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• I'm always looking for those places where you can slam really disparate people up against one another, and they have to deal with each other. There are very few crossroads anymore. We talk about this country as this big melting pot, but it's a mosaic. There's all these pieces, they're next to each other, they're not necessarily mixing. And I'm looking for those spaces where people actually do mix.

  Jenji Kohan

  Country, Badass, Space

  "'Orange' Creator Jenji Kohan: 'Piper Was My Trojan Horse'". "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross, www.npr.org. August 13, 2013.

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• You spend so much of your life crafting this stuff that you want to laugh in the room. I don't want to sit there and slit my wrists. And I think it reflects reality. People use humor to survive, even in the most horrific situations.

  Jenji Kohan

  Thinking, Reality, People

  Source: collider.com

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• Even during the casting process, the pools of talent are so deep when you have a call for Latin women or black women or a middle-aged woman because they never get their shot. There's so much talent there.

  Jenji Kohan

  Latin, Black, Casting

  Source: collider.com

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• To be able to be there first, I love the pioneer thing. It's exciting to me. And they pay full rate, they're really nice, they support the work, and they said yes. What could be bad? It's the Wild West. You can do what you want.

  Jenji Kohan

  Nice, Support, Pioneers

  Source: collider.com

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• I think my immediate reaction was, "I'm so tired. I need a little more time." But, it was very quickly followed up by excitement. It's very flattering, and it's a wonderful vote of confidence. We dream of getting to do what we do.

  Jenji Kohan

  Dream, Tired, Thinking

  Source: collider.com

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• We're also talking a lot in the room about planting seeds that can grow over the course of the season, knowing that people might be watching them in bulk. We'd like to bury some Easter eggs and let people find them, later on.

  Jenji Kohan

  Easter, Talking, Eggs

  Source: collider.com

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• As long as there are still interesting stories and still interesting people that we want to meet, I can keep it going. But, we all have to be invested. If the room starts getting bored or I start getting restless, then we'll either have to change something in the show or maybe end it.

  Jenji Kohan

  Bored, Long, People

  Source: collider.com

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• It was enormously challenging because you want that all-American girl, but you also want the cool WASP, privileged white girl. Usually, women in that package aren't funny.

  Jenji Kohan

  Girl, White, Challenges

  Source: collider.com

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• I think it would be exhausting and depressing, to write, to watch and to live, if it was just focused on drama. It's heavy. Also, I think the humor really highlights the pathos and the struggle. You can slam it up against drama, and it makes both shine.

  Jenji Kohan

  Depressing, Drama, Struggle

  Source: collider.com

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• But if I had my way, there would be so much more, in everything. It's so vital and integral in life, and it should be reflected in what we're watching, if we're reflecting our experiences. And it's hot. I love the sex stuff, and I want more.

  Jenji Kohan

  Sex, Way, Hot

  Source: collider.com

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• I begged her to write a song and she said yes. I am a huge Regina Spektor fan. I think she's a genius and just a lovely soul, and I wanted her voice on it. And she agreed, which is just the coolest thing, ever. She knocked it out of the park.

  Jenji Kohan

  Song, Writing, Thinking

  Source: collider.com

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• On the other hand, we worked a year on this and some people are going to watch it in a night and go, "We want more!" And there is something I miss about the longing and the anticipation for the next episode.

  Jenji Kohan

  Night, Hands, Years

  Source: collider.com

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• Also, this is our lives for a huge part of the year and we did not want to be in prison, 24/7. It was too oppressive. So, we were like, "How can we get out? Let's see their lives, a little bit." That was really fun.

  Jenji Kohan

  Fun, Years, Want

  Source: collider.com

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• We fell in love with different people. Looking back, we might have done it in a different order, but we got invested. We really wanted to do the flashbacks because we wanted to explore who these women were on the outside versus the inside, and get a fuller picture of the masks we wear.

  Jenji Kohan

  Order, People, Different

  Source: collider.com

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• I'm always looking for a nexus, where you can put all these diverse people together, see how they respond to one another, see what they learn about each other, and what they like and don't like.

  Jenji Kohan

  People, Together, Nexus

  Source: collider.com

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• We watched these auditions and could only pick one. Sometimes we would add new characters 'cause we wanted to use another actress. There were so many people who were just waiting for something like this.

  Jenji Kohan

  Character, People, Waiting

  Source: collider.com

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• But, how many times can you get exactly what you want, when you want it? Not very often. So, why not have it with entertainment? That's what it's fun. It's fun! I find that's how I'm watching, more and more. My kids go on binges, and I get sucked in. And then, it's the middle of the night and they're late for school, the next day.

  Jenji Kohan

  Fun, School, Kids

  Source: collider.com

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• I think a good story, well told is a good story, well told, whether you're watching the episodes all in a row or not. However, it might be fun to take a closer look at how the previous episode ends and how that end relates to the beginning of the next episode.

  Jenji Kohan

  Fun, Thinking, Looks

  Source: collider.com

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• The oppression of it, the sense of helplessness, and really being part of a system and a bureaucracy that is arbitrary. I never thought of the depth of losing your freedom and what that meant. And I was surprised and delighted by ways people maintain their humanity and try to survive.

  Jenji Kohan

  People, Humanity, Trying

  Source: collider.com

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