Anna Deavere Smith Quotes - Page 3

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• When I was a kid, my grandfather said that "if you say a word often enough, it becomes you." Thinking of that later in life gave me this idea that I could try to become America by learning the words of people from many aspects of the country.

  Anna Deavere Smith

  Country, Kids, Thinking

  Source: www.motherjones.com

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• I think what I am is a "convener"; I like to convene people around ideas.

  Anna Deavere Smith

  Thinking, Ideas, People

  Source: www.motherjones.com

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• Learning is a tunnel experience that makes us think more broadly.

  Anna Deavere Smith

  Thinking, Tunnels

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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

  Listening, Prejudice, Three

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• Movies, as evidenced by a chorus of protesting and celebrating Americans, influence broader trends.

  Anna Deavere Smith

  Trends, Influence, Celebrate

  "Put a Face on It" by Anna Deavere Smith, www.huffingtonpost.com. February 22, 2013.

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• I went as far away from home as possible in terms of the development of my imagination.

  Anna Deavere Smith

  Home, Imagination, Development

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• 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.

  Anna Deavere Smith

  Upside Down, Moments, Possibility

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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

  Documentaries, Resources, Filmmaker

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• 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

  Art, Thinking, People

  "Anna Deavere Smith revisits 'Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992'". Interview with Reed Johnson, articles.latimes.com. April 25, 2012.

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• 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 different kinds of things that we do for exercise.

  Anna Deavere Smith

  Exercise, Dancer, Sneezing

  Interview with Sam Adams, www.avclub.com. January 13, 2012.

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

  Anna Deavere Smith

  Art, Commitment, Teach

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

  Anna Deavere Smith

  Art, Thinking, Art Is

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• Confidence is the mark of a hopeful disposition.

  Anna Deavere Smith

  Confidence, Hopeful, Disposition

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• Each person has a literature inside them. But when people lose language, when they have to experiment with putting their thoughts together on the spot-that's what I love most. That's where character lives.

  Anna Deavere Smith

  Character, People, Decision

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

  Anna Deavere Smith

  Television, Violent, Shows

  "Anna Deavere Smith Talks Guns; Chris Brown Heads Back to Court; Major Policy Change Expands Gay Rights as Military Pay Raise Pulled Back; Woman Uses Obscene Gesture Towards Judge". "CNN Newsroom", edition.cnn.com. February 6, 2013.

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• 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

  Hard Work, Thinking, Doctors

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• My job in my work is not to acquire power; it's to question power.

  Anna Deavere Smith

  Jobs, Power, Acquire

  Anna Deavere Smith (2008). “Letters to a Young Artist: Straight-up Advice on Making a Life in the Arts-For Actors, Performers, Writers, and Artists of Every Kind”, p.39, Anchor

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• I think as a kid I always liked to listen to people. I loved hearing stories.

  Anna Deavere Smith

  Kids, Thinking, People

  "Bill Moyers Journal", www.pbs.org. November 13, 2009.

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• If you say a word often enough it becomes you.

  Anna Deavere Smith

  Enough, Ifs

  Anna Deavere Smith (2001). “Talk to Me: Listening Between the Lines”, p.56, Random House

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

  Anna Deavere Smith

  Path, Environment, Feels

  "The Tavis Smiley Show", www.pbs.org. July 25, 2011.

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• 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 back from war now; years ago, they would have been killed, now they're wounded; and they're coming back alive and with post-traumatic stress. So, I think Americans are sensible enough to know we've got to figure out a way to take care of them.

  Anna Deavere Smith

  War, Stress, Thinking

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• A lot of acting techniques are very self-oriented.

  Anna Deavere Smith

  Self, Acting, Technique

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

  Anna Deavere Smith

  Ideas, People, Firsts

  "The Tavis Smiley Show", www.pbs.org. July 25, 2011.

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• I love studying how people are. Not just what they're saying, but how they are, what they're doing.

  Anna Deavere Smith

  People, Study

  "The Tavis Smiley Show", www.pbs.org. July 25, 2011.

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

  Anna Deavere Smith

  Political, Haute Couture, Language

  "My LA: Theater, Film And Television Actress Anna Deavere Smith". Interview with Heather Wood Rudulph, www.huffingtonpost.com. July 25, 2011.

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