Anna Deavere Smith Quotes

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

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• I felt somehow for many years that George Washington and Alexander Hamilton just left me out by mistake. But through the process of amendment, interpretation, and court decision, I have finally been included in 'We, the people.'

  

  Barbara Jordan
  • People
  • Me
  • Decision

• I'm a big believer if you want to change people's minds or get someone to vote for you, either a voter or a colleague, you've got to first get their attention.

  

  Aaron Schock
  • People
  • Change
  • Attention

• I am an invisible man. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids - and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me.

  

  Ralph Ellison
  • People
  • Mind
  • Man

• People tweet before they think, and it becomes obsessive.

  

  Ian McShane
  • People
  • Think
  • Before

• I design all my sets. With my tour and my album artwork, I co-design that with people who are better at drawing than me. But I've got a good imagination. I went to art school so I understand how to communicate my ideas.

  

  Paloma Faith
  • People
  • Good
  • School

• My dad once said that in criminal law you see terrible people on their best behavior; in family law you see great people on their worst behavior.

  

  Laura Wasser
  • People
  • Great
  • Family

• There's book smart, there is street smart, there's relationship smart, there's too many different kinds of smarts to know all of them. Everybody doesn't know every kind of smart. There's money smart, there's movie smart, there's computer smart. There's just too many different kinds of smarts for people to know all the smarts.

  

  J. B. Smoove
  • People
  • Different
  • Money

• The reason I decided to run for Senate is one of my responsibilities as governor is to make sure that the voices of our people and our small businesses in New Hampshire are heard in Washington and that we continue to make the type of progress we're making here at the state level; we need that same type of response and progress in Washington.

  

  Maggie Hassan
  • People
  • Small
  • Progress

• During a game, it comes down to your mind - the pressure. There are loads of other aspects, too. Many people say taking penalties is easy, but when you're stood over one, that's not the case. It's in no way easy. The goal really does become a lot smaller.

  

  Francesco Totti
  • People
  • Mind
  • Game

• Escapism, we are led to believe, is evidence of a deficiency in character, a certain failure of temperament, and like so many -isms, it is to be strenuously avoided. 'How do you expect to get ahead?,' people ask. But the question altogether misses the point. The escapist doesn't want to get ahead. He simply wants to get away.

  

  J. Maarten Troost
  • People
  • Believe
  • Character

• It's really fun to act like a bimbo. But it's fun to act like a bimbo only when people know that you really aren't one.

  

  Laura Dern
  • People
  • Fun
  • Know

• I don't just want to be a cute girl in a comedy or the actress who just does the same thing over and over again. I want to play roles that are distinct. I want to have a more varied career like actresses Viola Davis or Angela Bassett - those are the people that I grew up watching and admiring.

  

  Naturi Naughton 3LW
  • People
  • Up
  • Career

• We know that the elements in play in a show like 'Confederate' are much more raw, much more real, and people come into them much more sensitive and more invested, than they do with a story about a place called 'Westeros,' which none of them had ever heard of before they read the books or watched the show.

  

  D. B. Weiss
  • People
  • Real
  • Know

• In boxing, there are no bad guys or good guys. Just people trying to make a living and trying to live up to their pride and to try to become someone.

  

  Edgar Ramirez
  • People
  • Up
  • Good

• It's no use of talking unless people understand what you say.

  

  Zora Neale Hurston
  • People
  • You
  • Understand

• And a tiny number of people in a few states make these decisions, and we're left with these options that are increasingly not attractive to the American people.

  

  Hamilton Jordan
  • People
  • American
  • Decisions

• I think probably one of the coolest things was when I went to play basketball at Rucker Park in Harlem. First of all, who would think that Larry the Cable Guy would go to Harlem to play basketball? And I was received like a rock star. It was amazing! There were people everywhere. There were guys walking by yelling, 'Git 'r done!'

  

  Larry the Cable Guy
  • People
  • Done
  • Guy

• People on both sides of any conflict believe they are right, whether it's on a TV show or in the real world.

  

  Mandy Patinkin
  • People
  • World
  • Believe

• You see Michelangelo and Picasso and you read literature. I had some innate inchoate yearning for that, but I never really saw where I would fit in. That's called art. And then something happened to pop music, which is that it became art under the hand of the Beatles, the Stones, and Bob Dylan and some other people.

  

  David Chase
  • People
  • Music
  • Art

• The toughest parts of the shooting schedule for me are the days between working, when you've nothing to do but wait. There is only so much time you can spend on a script before it becomes so rehearsed that your performance becomes rigid and immovable on the day of, so one has to occupy one's time in some fashion. For me, those interim days are usually spent exercising, exploring, learning to cook something edible, and working on my own creative endeavors.

  

  Bryce Pinkham
  • Time
  • Performance
  • Script

• I mean, I've been given a terrific life by the audiences who stuck with me all over the world.

  

  Don McLean
  • Life
  • World

• In Brazil, if you have a son, the first thing you give him is a football. That's the first gift - so my dad was no different.

  

  Diego Costa
  • Different
  • Dad
  • Football

• I did this role in Life Goes On as an HIV positive character and so emotionally that was the most challenging.

  

  Chad Lowe
  • Life
  • Character
  • Positive

• 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
  • People