Artist Quotes by Anna Deavere Smith

11 Artist quotes by Anna Deavere Smith

All Artist quotes Anna Deavere Smith’s page

Anna Deavere Smith brings a nuanced voice to the conversation about artistic identity. In just eleven statements she sketches the responsibilities and freedoms that come with the craft, offering a concise yet resonant glimpse into her thinking.

Rate this collection: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet

Art simply can’t be stopped.

Anna Deavere Smith

Image

I think that art is supposed to be ahead of the times.

Anna Deavere Smith

Image

You know, real artists, we expose our flaws. We long for intimacy.

Anna Deavere Smith

Image

That artists are called to be more responsible and 'true' is a tip of hat to their power.

Anna Deavere Smith

Image

Commit to finding the true nature of art. Go for that thing no one can teach you.

Anna Deavere Smith

Image

Perhaps art is a quest for the perfect, or even the imperfect. Reality always falls short on both sides.

Anna Deavere Smith

Image

Art should take what is complex and render it simply. It takes a lot of skill, human understanding, stamina, courage, energy, and…

Anna Deavere Smith

Image

Do you want to be an artist so that the whole world will look at you, or do you want to be…

Anna Deavere Smith

Image

We who are in the arts are at the risk of being in a popularity contest rather than a profession. If that…

Anna Deavere Smith

Image

Artists are the people that no matter what, pick up the pen, pick up a paintbrush. They take the time to translate…

Anna Deavere Smith

Image

They say that art should stand the test of time. Life lasts a limited amount of time. Mountains and trees and earth…

Anna Deavere Smith

Image

Other authors on Artist

More by Anna Deavere Smith

I feel like my work has been my path to freedom from having grown up in a segregated environment.

Anna Deavere Smith

Image

Identity is an assemblage of constellations.

Anna Deavere Smith

Image

I think some of our most talented people are not going to pick the arts as a way that they're going to spend their…

Anna Deavere Smith

Image

I mean, I think that - as an actress, in particular, I'm basically a fool, and I see the world upside down.

Anna Deavere Smith

Image

The American idea is as promising, imaginative, and full of the unexpected as the land itself. The land represents freedom - the frontier, the…

Anna Deavere Smith

Image

I have never been in a violent movie or television show.

Anna Deavere Smith

Image

Poverty makes it very difficult in an already competitive world for kids to get on a straight track where they can actually love learning.

Anna Deavere Smith

Image

Your desire to communicate must be bigger than your relationship with the chaotic and unfair realities.

Anna Deavere Smith

Image

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…

Anna Deavere Smith