Anna Deavere Smith Quotes

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

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Quotes to Explore

• I love working with other actors and other people - you know, stand-up - it's lonely; it's just you out there and the audience. But it's fun working with other actors. I love doing that, too.

  

  Wanda Sykes
  • People
  • Up
  • Love

• When I was travelling in Rajasthan people were waving hands, and it felt like I was visiting my own constituency.

  

  Kamla Persad-Bissessar
  • People
  • Like
  • Hands

• It's a luxury to not have to just be performing with other people to have my music heard.

  

  M. Ward
  • People
  • Music
  • Luxury

• I was devastated when I got the review for my first book. The book came out a couple years before the women's movement broke through, and people were putting it down, asking, 'Why does the woman in this book need to get a divorce? Why can't she just shut up and be happy?'

  

  Gail Sheehy
  • People
  • Up
  • Women

• The reason I don't carry a mobile phone is I don't want people to know where I am!

  

  Felix Dennis
  • People
  • Mobile Phones

• If you ask me, rockabilly has had a raw deal for far too long. People never shunned the blues or jazz the way they do rockabilly. But it's the original punk-rock, and it changed the way people looked at music for ever.

  

  Imelda May
  • People
  • Music
  • Long

• You cannot blame the mismanagement of the economy or the fact that we have not invested adequately in education in order to give our people the knowledge, the skills and the technology that they need in order to be able to use the resources that Africa has to gain wealth.

  

  Wangari Maathai
  • People
  • Knowledge
  • Education

• Some people's personalities are so compelling that they command attention.

  

  Laura Linney
  • People
  • Attention
  • Some

• It's always convenient for certain people to heap accusations on Israel.

  

  Yasser Arafat
  • People
  • Always
  • Israel

• We're more interested in someone writing a really great answer that's going to be read by thousands or tens of thousands of people over the next few years as it stays on Quora and as it gets distributed on the Internet.

  

  Adam D'Angelo
  • People
  • Great
  • Writing

• I'm really excited about the prospect of deepening what is already a really strong relationship that I have with the people of Broward.

  

  Ted Deutch
  • People
  • Strong
  • Relationship

• I don't care about what people might call my style. It's just like when people call my music 'jangly,' 'dream,' 'oceanside,' whatever - I don't care. I'm just wearing whatever I can scrap together.

  

  Mac DeMarco
  • People
  • Music
  • Together

• I'm 21 years old, and it's kind of uncomfortable for me to talk about, but I'm in the 1 percent as far as my income and tax bracket. But now that I'm here, there's no amount of money you can wave in front of my face that will make me understand depriving people of human rights.

  

  Halsey
  • People
  • Money
  • Human Rights

• A lot of people like snow. I find it to be an unnecessary freezing of water.

  

  Carl Reiner
  • People
  • Nature
  • Water

• Voting has proliferated in the United States, and it has reached a point where there is now almost one vote available per citizen over the age of eighteen.

  

  P. J. O'Rourke
  • Age
  • Now
  • Voting

• In New York, you walk everywhere, so you're amongst people all of the time, and everybody is in a hurry and going somewhere or has something on their minds. And in L.A., it's still much more of a laid-back life, at least in my experience.

  

  Dakota Fanning
  • People
  • Life
  • Time

• There must be right and wrong answers to questions of morality and values that potentially fall within the purview of science. On this view, some people and cultures will be right (to a greater or lesser degree), and some will be wrong, with respect to what they deem important in life.

  

  Sam Harris
  • People
  • Life
  • Important

• For future politics, I don't know what it holds, but if there's a possibility that the people want me to do another political office, again, maybe I'll do it.

  

  Vance McAllister
  • People
  • Future
  • Political

• I generally like grey roles. My interpretation of drama is different from the popular perception. Acting, for me, is not about overplaying, it is about concealing. I like flawed characters that people relate to. I would never do a romcom.

  

  Emraan Hashmi
  • People
  • Different
  • Drama

• My biggest pet peeve is when you go to a fine restaurant, and it's like a mausoleum inside. Good food should be joyful. There should be laughter and chatter, not people sitting there like they're in a funeral-parlor waiting room.

  

  Jim Harrison
  • People
  • Good
  • Food

• When a movie is called 'searingly honest,' it's almost invariably grim and demonstrates how bad things can get.

  

  Bill Nighy
  • Bad
  • Movie

• I have this whole new audience now.

  

  Katey Sagal
  • Audience
  • New
  • Now

• Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.

  

  H. L. Mencken
  • Man
  • Black
  • Hands

• 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
  • People
  • Explore