Anna Deavere Smith Quotes

Quotes about:

• What you are will show, ultimately. Start now, every day, becoming, in your actions, your regular actions, what you would like to become in the bigger scheme of things.

  Anna Deavere Smith

  Becoming, Action, Bigger

  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.37, Anchor

  48 Copy quote

• Confidence is a static state. Determination is active. Determination allows for doubt and for humility - both of which are critical in the world today. There is so much that we don’t know, and so much that we know we don’t know. To be overly confident or without doubt seems silly to me. Determination, on the other hand, is a commitment to win, a commitment to fight the good fight.

  Anna Deavere Smith

  Determination, Silly, Humility

  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.25, Anchor

  16 Copy quote

• I am not myself; I am the potential of myself.

  Anna Deavere Smith

  Curiosity

  4 Copy quote

• Hope is when you look out the window and you go, 'It doesn't look good at all, but I'm going to go beyond what I see to give people visions of what could be.'

  Anna Deavere Smith

  People, Giving, Vision

  13 Copy quote

• Artists are the people that no matter what, pick up the pen, pick up a paintbrush. They take the time to translate what is happening to create something that resonates deeply with the rest of the people that are caught in the middle of their own reality.

  Anna Deavere Smith

  Reality, Artist, People

  "Let Me Down Easy". Interview with Yazmany Arboleda, www.huffingtonpost.com. December 13, 2010.

  30 Copy quote

• Each person has a literature inside them.

  Anna Deavere Smith

  Literature, Persons

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• Some people study a text very deeply. The people are my text. I study their words and what their words sound like, over and over again. 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. It doesn't matter how educated they are. By living in the world and living their experiences, they bring extraordinary truths. I try to do those truths justice.

  Anna Deavere Smith

  Country, Kids, Thinking

  Source: www.motherjones.com

  7 Copy quote

• I happen to be a hopeaholic. I tend to look at problems as an opportunity to do some work.

  Anna Deavere Smith

  Opportunity, Looks, Problem

  Source: www.motherjones.com

  7 Copy quote

• Your desire to communicate must be bigger than your relationship with the chaotic and unfair realities.

  Anna Deavere Smith

  Communication, Reality, Desire

  7 Copy quote

• You can't teach talent. You can't teach inspiration. You can teach people critical facilities. You can give them techniques. You can teach discipline. And you can teach them about the business.

  Anna Deavere Smith

  Teaching, Inspiration, Discipline

  16 Copy quote

• 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

  Car, Racism, Tragedy

  13 Copy quote

• Be more than ready. Be present in your discipline. Remember your gift. Be grateful for your gift and treat it like a gift. Cherish it, take care of it, and pass it on.

  Anna Deavere Smith

  Grateful, Discipline, Preparation

  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.36, Anchor

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• 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

  Inspirational, Country, Art

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

  9 Copy quote

• You've heard that old expression from Shakespeare, 'Just speak the speech'? The words themselves will take you to the reality of the character. And so this led me to interview people.

  Anna Deavere Smith

  Character, Reality, Expression

  Source: www.motherjones.com

  9 Copy quote

• People who are sick, or who have been sick, or have come close to death have a lot to say - and they want you to hear it.

  Anna Deavere Smith

  People, Sick, Want

  4 Copy quote

• Even jealousy is based on fantasies: a fantasy that someone else has what belongs to you.

  Anna Deavere Smith

  Fantasy

  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.76, Anchor

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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

  Hard Work, Heart, Listening

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• Friendship is a wildly underrated medication.

  Anna Deavere Smith

  Medication, Underrated

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

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• 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.

  Anna Deavere Smith

  Ideas, People, Typical

  "Let Me Down Easy". Interview with Yazmany Arboleda, www.huffingtonpost.com. December 13, 2010.

  6 Copy quote

• Making your life is ultimately an extraordinarily creative endeavor.

  Anna Deavere Smith

  Creative, Life Is, Endeavor

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• 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.

  Anna Deavere Smith

  Real, Worry, Our Actions

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• 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 know - sitting in the dark.

  Anna Deavere Smith

  Dark, Night, People

  Anna Deavere Smith (2001). “Talk to Me: Listening Between the Lines”, p.134, Random House

  7 Copy quote

• I am lucky: I have fantastic doctors and a fantastic dentist.

  Anna Deavere Smith

  Doctors, Lucky, Dentist

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• Discipline — both mental and physical — is crucial.

  Anna Deavere Smith

  Discipline, Crucial

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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.

  Anna Deavere Smith

  Home, Thinking, Giving

  "High Honors For Actress Deavere Smith". "Tell Me More" with Michel Martin, www.npr.org. February 25, 2013.

  4 Copy quote

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