When I watch television, I want to be surprised.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.'

God is in control of everything.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

There's a difference between talent and skill. You might have writing talent, but skill is learned. You have to practice. I remain teachable. I was sure that I didn't know everything. People who work with me will tell you I don't think I know everything. I watch people sink around me thinking that they knew everything.

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.

It... does... not... have... to... be... pointed out all the time. Like, 'Isn't it great that you're black, and you're a woman?' Isn't it great that the show's good? I would just love for it not to be a thing - for it just to be, like, super norm.

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.

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.

Not many people get to create a television show that actually makes it on the air.

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.

Show-running is a very difficult job that includes so many responsibilities; I'm working with the actors, working with directors, writing, making decisions like, 'What fabric is that sofa gonna be?'

People who cling rigidly to gender binaries are more than welcome to. But for a lot of young people, we're seeing that our gender roles don't have to be dictated by a set of rules made by society. We can do whatever feels natural to us.

I sort of throw away the definitions of gender - that boys are 'supposed' to wear blue and girls are 'supposed' to wear pink - and those gender roles and gender presentations. I do it on my own terms rather than based on what other people say I should do.

For people living with HIV, the knowledge that undetectable equals untransmittable is huge news, not only as a means of preventing transmission, but in breaking down the stigma that many people still experience.

When someone is saying something bigoted, try and remember that that person actually just doesn't understand, and that it comes from a level of ignorance, or from socialised brainwashing, or religious ideas.

I remember my first Mardi Gras. It was in the year 2001. I decided earlier that day that I was going to go in drag. It was my third time in drag.

It's a common misunderstanding, that when a bisexual person is dating someone of the opposite sex that they are now straight, or if they are dating someone of the same sex they are now gay.

On New Year's Eve, 2000, my friends and I were going to a party in Melbourne and I decided to do it in drag. It was the happiest night of my life.

I'm no Joan of Arc, but it's pretty revolutionary having a gender illusionist selling the illusion of beauty to females.

Drag can make you a little more fearless and I think girls especially love drag because they get to see somebody define their own standard of feminine beauty.

I know when there's lots of stuff racing around in my head it can be hard to sleep and stay asleep. And one of the biggest things that used to keep me awake at night was worrying about my gender and sexuality.

I'm just looking at other opportunities, television... not so much another existing reality show, but more about creating stuff.

You can literally tour all around Australia in two weekends.

I'd always been a performer, growing up in a theatre school.

The Spice Girls and Fran Drescher were such important parts of my childhood. There was something about them that allowed me to be myself.

I had post-traumatic stress from 'Drag Race' a little bit.

It's detrimental not to support marriage equality, even just on a financial level.

People care about what I have to say now, and they want to hear it, and that's one of the greatest gifts you can be given.

I think my first actual real job was a door-to-doors salesperson for Foxtel, a cable TV company, and that lasted a couple of weeks because I got held, like I wouldn't say at swordpoint, but I was kept in someone's house against my will and she did have a sword and was sort of brandishing it.

I genuinely had always thought, this sounds dumb, I always thought that 'RuPaul's Drag Race' was shot in the basement of RuPaul's house.

Normally when you go to a queer space the people often look like you, they are the same age as you and so on, but at Mardi Gras and at queer events in general, everybody is different, everybody comes together. And that is what I love about Pride and Mardi Gras and those sort of events.

Because bisexual people almost have a foot in the gay and the straight world, their friends can misunderstand them too. Like if a bisexual man starts dating another man, people are like 'Ah, he's gay,' but you know, bisexual people remain bisexual, and their attractions can change and flux over time.

I think that gay men in particular need to just listen to bisexual people and believe them when they say they're attracted to different genders.

I acknowledge that I'm really fortunate to have found pockets of people all through my life who've accepted me.

It's so easy to be polarised and yell from different sides of the room about certain subjects, but I think it's so much better to walk into the middle and have a conversation to drive change forward.

So many reactions in our lives are based on what happened to us when we were younger.

Call me old fashioned, but I love songs that end. As a songwriter, I feel like you put a fade out when you can't work out how to end a song.

I am a Madonna fan.

Pole dancing is way harder than it looks.

I'm a big fan of Stormzy.