All Anna Deavere Smith Quotes
- For me, first of all, I love people, I love ideas. All
- I call the language of political figures, pundits and administrators 'the haute couture of language.' Administrators
- I don't talk a lot when I interview. My job is to get out of the way. Inspirational
- I feel like my work has been my path to freedom from having grown up in a segregated environment. Been
- I have a lot of optimism about new doctors because I think it's really clear that it's a lot of hard work and no guarantee… Clear
- I have never been in a violent movie or television show. Been
- I love studying how people are. Not just what they're saying, but how they are, what they're doing. Inspirational
- I mean, I think a healthy country is a country where people are healthy physically, and a smart country is a country where people are… Country
- I mean, I think that - as an actress, in particular, I'm basically a fool, and I see the world upside down. Actress
- I never know when somebody's going to knock on the door of my own unconscious in a way that I wouldn't have anticipated. Anticipated
- I remember from my father's funeral that the minister kept using a metaphor about life of a prism. And I took that away like a… Away Like
- I see myself as not a typical theater person, but a person who uses the theater as a place to meet people and explore ideas. Explore
- I see myself first and foremost as a student of expression. Expression
- 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 lives. Art
- I would love to have been a documentary filmmaker; I just didn't have the resources to do that. Been
- 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. Down
- Movies, as evidenced by a chorus of protesting and celebrating Americans, influence broader trends. American
- That artists are called to be more responsible and 'true' is a tip of hat to their power. Artist
- If I do three interviews in a day, I can be exhausted, because the process of hearing everyone requires that I empty out myself. While… Certainly Come
- You hang around actors, or dancers, the minute you sneeze, everybody has a remedy, and we're all on a million different kinds of diets, and… Actor
- The American idea is as promising, imaginative, and full of the unexpected as the land itself. The land represents freedom - the frontier, the ability… Ability
- When I got out of acting school, I was lucky to have gotten any job at all. A lot of people hiring African American actresses… Acting
- We spend so much time bantering about the words when the real open conversations might very well be our actions. I worry about our rhetoric. Action
- I think we can learn a lot about a person in the very moment that language fails them. In the very moment they they have… Badly
- 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… Crowd