Anna Deavere Smith Quotes

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Anna Deavere Smith

Profession : Actress

Birth : September 18, 1950

President Obama called for a 'we' nation in his Inauguration Address. Art convenes. It is not just inspirational. It is aspirational. It pricks the walls of our compartmentalized minds, opens our hearts and makes us brave. And that's what we need most in our country today.

Anna Deavere Smith

I am interested in personal stories because that's when people become expressive, spontaneous and heartfelt.

Anna Deavere Smith

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

Anna Deavere Smith

I don't talk a lot when I interview. My job is to get out of the way.

Anna Deavere Smith

Racism has been for everyone like a horrible, tragic car crash, and we've all been heavily sedated from it. If we don't come into consciousness of this tragedy, there's going to be a violent awakening we don't want. The question is, can we wake up?

Anna Deavere Smith

In my profession, I'm around a lot of people whose bodies are their instruments in one way or another.

Anna Deavere Smith

You know, all kinds of people inspire me.

Anna Deavere Smith

For me, first of all, I love people, I love ideas.

Anna Deavere Smith

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

Anna Deavere Smith

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.

Anna Deavere Smith

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 cherished image.

Anna Deavere Smith

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.

Anna Deavere Smith

Suddenly in high school, I'm in a predominantly Jewish atmosphere. Jewish people were my gate to white America.

Anna Deavere Smith

We would like doctors to listen, but the fact is, we better be ready to be able to talk to them. You're going to have to be an active participant in that conversation, so I'd say the American people are going to need ways of stepping up to the conversation.

Anna Deavere Smith

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 of a lot of money.

Anna Deavere Smith

I think a lot of L.A. is something like USC - this incredible white culture living in the midst of color, and no obvious reaction to it at all. I mean, they have guards at the gate at USC - guards at the gate of a major university! And the guards chase young black boys away - I've seen it, chasing 8-year-old boys.

Anna Deavere Smith

My work is about giving voice to the unheard, and reiterating the voice of the heard in such a way that you question, or re-examine, what is the truth.

Anna Deavere Smith

My main concern is theater, and theater does not reflect or mirror society. It has been stingy and selfish, and it has to do better.

Anna Deavere Smith

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

Anna Deavere Smith

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

Anna Deavere Smith