Anna Deavere Smith Quotes

American - Actress | September 18, 1950 -

I call the language of political figures, pundits and administrators 'the haute couture of language.'

Anna Deavere Smith

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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, even if you, you know, are going to have to go without a cup of coffee or even a meal, that that should nourish you.

Anna Deavere Smith

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When you think about it, words can break your heart, or they can change your day.

Anna Deavere Smith

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I was a mimic when I was a child. I mimicked the teacher and made friends that way, actually. That was a very subversive activity, because I was a goody-goody who never got in trouble. But if I went off in the corner and mimicked the teacher, people loved it.

Anna Deavere Smith

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I would love to have been a documentary filmmaker; I just didn't have the resources to do that.

Anna Deavere Smith

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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 - it was right after 'Roots,' and for society, not me, it was great. Nice richly dark-skinned people was the fashion, and I was not.

Anna Deavere Smith

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People in power have to be careful about what comes out of their mouth. They have to find exactly the right word that can't be attacked.

Anna Deavere Smith

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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.

Anna Deavere Smith

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Probably the person who said the only color in Los Angeles is green was right.

Anna Deavere Smith

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Over time, my students have gotten richer and more educated.

Anna Deavere Smith

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Listening is not just hearing what someone tells you word for word. You have to listen with a heart. I don't want that to sound touchy-feely; it is not. It is very hard work.

Anna Deavere Smith

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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 I'm listening, my own judgments and prejudices certainly come up. But I know I won't get anything unless I get those things out of the way.

Anna Deavere Smith

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