I think some of our most talented people are not going to pick the arts as a way that they're going to… — Anna Deavere Smith Copy Share 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 Copy Share Image
People realize that we're very good at sending people to war, but we're not good at taking care of them. And people… — Anna Deavere Smith Copy Share Image
When I was a kid, my grandfather said that "if you say a word often enough, it becomes you." Thinking of that… — Anna Deavere Smith Copy Share Image
If you think about what acting is supposed to be, my job is to disappear. — Anna Deavere Smith Copy Share Image
Some people study a text very deeply. The people are my text. I study their words and what their words sound like,… — Anna Deavere Smith Copy Share Image
I mean, I think a healthy country is a country where people are healthy physically, and a smart country is a country… — Anna Deavere Smith Copy Share Image
Learning is a tunnel experience that makes us think more broadly. — Anna Deavere Smith Copy Share Image
I think as a kid I always liked to listen to people. I loved hearing stories. — Anna Deavere Smith Copy Share Image
I think we can learn a lot about a person in the very moment that language fails them. In the very moment… — Anna Deavere Smith Copy Share Image
I think we need leadership that helps us remember that part of what we are about is caring about more than the… — Anna Deavere Smith Copy Share Image
I think what I am is a "convener"; I like to convene people around ideas. — Anna Deavere Smith Copy Share Image
I think it's really important to give yourself a very big question that you're working on that you can come home to — Anna Deavere Smith Copy Share Image
I have a lot of optimism about new doctors because I think it's really clear that it's a lot of hard work… — Anna Deavere Smith Copy Share Image
What my work is, is my approach to it. It's the practice. And my work is about the effort that I make… — Anna Deavere Smith Copy Share Image
I feel like my work has been my path to freedom from having grown up in a segregated environment. — Anna Deavere Smith Copy Share 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 Copy Share 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 Copy Share 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 Copy Share 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 Copy Share Image
Your desire to communicate must be bigger than your relationship with the chaotic and unfair realities. — Anna Deavere Smith Copy Share 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 Copy Share Image
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… — Anna Deavere Smith Copy Share Image
I love studying how people are. Not just what they're saying, but how they are, what they're doing. — Anna Deavere Smith Copy Share Image
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,… — Anna Deavere Smith Copy Share Image