Jenji Kohan

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

— Jenji Kohan

It was enormously challenging because you want that all-American girl, but you also want the cool WASP, privileged white girl. Usually, women…

— Jenji Kohan

Also, this is our lives for a huge part of the year and we did not want to be in prison, 24/7.…

— Jenji Kohan

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

— Jenji Kohan

We're also talking a lot in the room about planting seeds that can grow over the course of the season, knowing that…

— Jenji Kohan

On the other hand, we worked a year on this and some people are going to watch it in a night and…

— Jenji Kohan

But, I like the challenge of, "How can we stretch this out? Where can we go with it?" It's an open road,…

— Jenji Kohan

I think my immediate reaction was, "I'm so tired. I need a little more time." But, it was very quickly followed up…

— Jenji Kohan

I don't set out to write female lead shows, necessarily. I like deeply flawed characters. When they come to me, or when…

— Jenji Kohan

But if I had my way, there would be so much more, in everything. It's so vital and integral in life, and…

— Jenji Kohan

But, how many times can you get exactly what you want, when you want it? Not very often. So, why not have…

— Jenji Kohan

I'm always looking for those places where you can slam really disparate people up against one another, and they have to deal…

— Jenji Kohan

Piper reads the scripts, and we email a lot. Most of her comments are on the more technical side, like "This wouldn't…

— Jenji Kohan

I think a good story, well told is a good story, well told, whether you're watching the episodes all in a row…

— Jenji Kohan

As long as there are still interesting stories and still interesting people that we want to meet, I can keep it going.…

— Jenji Kohan

If you go to a network and say, "I wanna do prison stories about black women and Latino women and old women,"…

— Jenji Kohan

I begged her to write a song and she said yes. I am a huge Regina Spektor fan. I think she's a…

— Jenji Kohan

Even during the casting process, the pools of talent are so deep when you have a call for Latin women or black…

— Jenji Kohan

I'm always looking for a nexus, where you can put all these diverse people together, see how they respond to one another,…

— Jenji Kohan

To be able to be there first, I love the pioneer thing. It's exciting to me. And they pay full rate, they're…

— Jenji Kohan

We watched these auditions and could only pick one. Sometimes we would add new characters 'cause we wanted to use another actress.…

— Jenji Kohan

I think shows that are completely dramatic are a lie. People use humor to cope. That is how we deal with things.…

— Jenji Kohan

I think it would be exhausting and depressing, to write, to watch and to live, if it was just focused on drama.…

— Jenji Kohan

We did tons of research. We went to visit a prison. We had speakers. We have read tons of supplementary material, books…

— Jenji Kohan

You want everyone to be a full character. No one is just evil, or very few people are, hopefully. They're characters, so…

— Jenji Kohan

The oppression of it, the sense of helplessness, and really being part of a system and a bureaucracy that is arbitrary. I…

— Jenji Kohan

We fell in love with different people. Looking back, we might have done it in a different order, but we got invested.…

— Jenji Kohan

You spend so much of your life crafting this stuff that you want to laugh in the room. I don't want to…

— Jenji Kohan