Anna Deavere Smith Quotes
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The individuals inside are frequently fighting that their individual voices be heard, while the walls of the place, which are the mask, and the perception, are reluctant to give over to the voices of the individuals. Those in the margins are always trying to get to the center, and those at the center, frequently in the name of tradition, are trying to keep the margins at a distance. Part of the identity of a place is the tension between those in the margins, and those in the center, and they all live behind the walls which wear the tradition.
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I think we need leadership that helps us remember that part of what we are about is caring about more than the person right next to us, but the folks across the way.
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Learning is a tunnel experience that makes us think more broadly.
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I love studying how people are. Not just what they're saying, but how they are, what they're doing.
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People realize that we're very good at sending people to war, but we're not good at taking care of them. And people are coming back from war now; years ago, they would have been killed, now they're wounded; and they're coming back alive and with post-traumatic stress. So, I think Americans are sensible enough to know we've got to figure out a way to take care of them.
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They say that art should stand the test of time. Life lasts a limited amount of time. Mountains and trees and earth will outlive human beings, but we don't know if they will be here always. Art does outlast the life span of its maker. Art should communicate to an increasing circle of strangers-people who do not know the artist, but come to know the work, and through the work, come to know something about the humanity of the artist that rings with their own humanity.
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I feel like my work has been my path to freedom from having grown up in a segregated environment.
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Self-esteem does not come from surrounding yourself with people and things that seem to increase your value. Real self-esteem is an integration of an inner-value with things in the world around you.
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Art simply can’t be stopped.
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Your desire to communicate must be bigger than your relationship with the chaotic and unfair realities.
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A lot of acting techniques are very self-oriented.
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Then everyone leaves, and you are left, each night, to your own devices with a crowd of interesting people - most of whom you don't know - sitting in the dark.
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Confidence is the mark of a hopeful disposition.
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I think it's really important to give yourself a very big question that you're working on that you can come home to.
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I'm interested when things are upside down - because there are so many possibilities in that one moment. There is a lot that is exposed.
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We who are in the arts are at the risk of being in a popularity contest rather than a profession. If that fact causes you despair . . . pick another profession. Your desire to communicate must be bigger than your relationship with the chaotic and unfair realities . . . We have to create our own standards of discipline.
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If you think about what acting is supposed to be, my job is to disappear.
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I happen to be a hopeaholic. I tend to look at problems as an opportunity to do some work.
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Confidence is a static state. Determination is active. Determination allows for doubt and for humility - both of which are critical in the world today. There is so much that we don’t know, and so much that we know we don’t know. To be overly confident or without doubt seems silly to me. Determination, on the other hand, is a commitment to win, a commitment to fight the good fight.
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You know if we were to look back and how we were in 1955 living in Jim Crow, living in segregation, living in segregated schools, it's hard to believe that it was America, but it really was.
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I am lucky: I have fantastic doctors and a fantastic dentist.
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Art should take what is complex and render it simply. It takes a lot of skill, human understanding, stamina, courage, energy, and heart to do that.
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I am not myself; I am the potential of myself.
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Many people are afraid to talk about race because it's so emotionally loaded. We don't have the vocabulary to talk about it. Every day, our vocabulary seems more and more inadequate.
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I call the language of political figures, pundits and administrators "the haute couture of language."
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Artists are the people that no matter what, pick up the pen, pick up a paintbrush. They take the time to translate what is happening to create something that resonates deeply with the rest of the people that are caught in the middle of their own reality.
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The American idea is as promising, imaginative, and full of the unexpected as the land itself. The land represents freedom - the frontier, the ability to make a new future with your own bare hands.
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I am interested in personal stories because that's when people become expressive, spontaneous and heartfelt.
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Some people study a text very deeply. The people are my text. I study their words and what their words sound like, over and over again.
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I don't talk a lot when I interview. My job is to get out of the way.
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