Anna Deavere Smith Quotes
Quotes to Explore
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I never use that word, retire.
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We have to reappropriate the concept of laicite (secularism) so we can explain to our young pupils that whatever their faith, they belong to this idea, and they're not excluded. Secularism is not something against them; it protects them.
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You can't say yes to every role, and you have to make people miss you. I don't want people to get sick of me.
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There is nothing, really, that I wouldn't write about, and I do write about a lot of grim things.
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Scotland's political identity was destroyed, and a huge Scottish emigration to North America followed the brutal Highland clearances. These included every layer of Scottish society, not just the remnants of the defeated clans.
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My job was to turn the company around and to give Time Warner a profitable Web business to spin off and a profitable access business that still throws off a tremendous amount of cash. I can check both of those boxes. I am done, and I feel good about what we've accomplished.
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Most of us understand that innovation is enormously important. It's the only insurance against irrelevance. It's the only guarantee of long-term customer loyalty. It's the only strategy for out-performing a dismal economy.
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If my mom reads that I'm grammatically incorrect I'll have hell to pay.
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While we look to the dramatist to give romance to realism, we ask of the actor to give realism to romance.
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I consciously decided not to be a 'London' actor. Those gangster movies made a lot of East End actors think they were movie stars. And I was very aware that they were going to go out of fashion.
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Everywhere I go, from malls to restaurants to sold-out tours overseas and back, everywhere I've been, I get nothing but love.
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I think writing is an extension of a childhood habit - the habit of entertaining oneself by taking interesting bits of reality and building upon them.
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Unless the reformer can invent something which substitutes attractive virtues for attractive vices, he will fail.
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I have to say, I do love the Ovation guitars. If I had one guitar to play, it would be that one, and it's got nothing to do with having my name on it. I absolutely rely on it.
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There something to be said for having even unrealistic dreams. Even if the dreams don't come true - that, to me, is what's beautiful about Los Angeles. It's full of these people who have moved there to chase these dreams.
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No passion in the world is equal to the passion to alter someone else's draft.
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In the case of my husband, we found that facing a life-threatening illness prodded us to make a dramatic change in our lives.
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The state treasurer has authority to weigh in and take leadership roles on taxing and spending legislation.
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I have very little interest in the bottom line or signing artists to help make the label profit. That's a lucky, unique position to be in, but it all comes out in the wash.
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The depth and strength of a human character are defined by its moral reserves. People reveal themselves completely only when they are thrown out of the customary conditions of their life, for only then do they have to fall back on their reserves.
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Christians are driven by God's promises, and directed by God's purposes.
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A lot of people write and tell us what The B-52s meant to them - straight, straight-A students, those who were a little awkward, weren't always the ones who fit in. People have told us that just having us and our music was beyond important and really made me feel that what we were doing was worth something big.
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I am lucky: I have fantastic doctors and a fantastic dentist.
