Anna Deavere Smith Quotes

People in power have to be careful about what comes out of their mouth. They have to find exactly the right word that can't be attacked.

Anna Deavere Smith

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Quotes to Explore

• The war changed everybody's attitude. We became international almost overnight.

  

  W. Averell Harriman
  • War
  • Attitude
  • Almost

• The making of documentaries for 'Humanoids From The Deep,' 'Galaxy Of Terror' and 'Forbidden World' are absolutely fascinating.

  

  Edgar Wright
  • World
  • Deep
  • Galaxy

• I'm always shy when I meet people I admire so I wouldn't be able to say anything rather than, 'How do you do? Love you! Bye!'

  

  Jacki Weaver
  • People
  • Love
  • Always

• I wanted to become a cartoon artist, a portrait artist, and an illustrator. This was my first idea.

  

  Karl Lagerfeld
  • Artist
  • First
  • Portrait

• To me, music is no joke and it's not for sale.

  

  Ian MacKaye
  • Music
  • Me
  • Joke

• I'm annoying to be around because I keep twitching.

  

  Sam Taylor-Johnson
  • Because
  • Keep
  • Annoying

• At Munich we sold the Czechs for a few months grace, but the disgrace will last as long as history.

  

  F. L. Lucas
  • Long
  • History
  • Grace

• Growing up, my mother was a very strong woman who was not very big, about 5'1'', but boy, you grabbed a tiger by the tail if you messed with her. I know grown men that messed with her, and through her wit and intelligence and her no-quit, she never lost a fight. That's very influential on me when I'm telling stories. I love exploring that.

  

  Taylor Sheridan
  • Stories
  • Fight
  • Intelligence

• The body dies, but the spirit that transcends it cannot be touched by death.

  

  Ramana Maharshi
  • Death
  • Body
  • Spirit

• The notion that one will not survive a particular catastrophe is, in general terms, a comfort since it is equivalent to abolishing the catastrophe.

  

  Iris Murdoch
  • Will
  • Comfort
  • Survive

• Just now, Christianity is in the ascendant. Buddhism and Taoism are decadent; their influence cannot long hold its own. Buddhism has long since passed its meridian; Taoism has only demons, not gods.

  

  Zhang Zhidong
  • Long
  • Influence
  • Demons

• I can see myself always writing songs - but I'm not sure if I'll always want to perform.

  

  Oliver Sim The xx
  • Writing
  • Want
  • Myself

• A film set is the most comfortable place I could be in the world; that's what I know.

  

  Dakota Johnson
  • World
  • Know
  • Place

• I see no marks of Wordsworths style of writing or style of thinking in my own work, yet Wordsworth is a constant presence when I write about human beings and their relations to the natural world.

  

  J. M. Coetzee
  • World
  • Work
  • Thinking

• I feel lucky to be getting older. The fact that I made it to 30 and then 40 was big enough. So I can't get too down on getting older; otherwise, it kind of undoes everything I've fought for.

  

  Sam Taylor-Wood
  • Down
  • Lucky
  • Getting Older

• Nobody knows me, and I hope that it stays like this.

  

  Hansjorg Wyss
  • Hope
  • Me
  • Knows

• When I do write, it happens really easily. I'll just kind of sing along to whatever I'm playing, then find a line to build off of, then sit down and write. When I do write, I take care of business!

  

  Sir Isaac Brock KB
  • Business
  • Care
  • Down

• I don't want to be disrespectful of the president of the United States, but as a political person, one of the things I appreciated about this president, in the past year especially, is he is a fantastic candidate.

  

  Ed Gillespie
  • Political
  • Past
  • Year

• If left unchecked, global change will create violent conflict, torrential storms, shrinking coastlines, and irreversible catastrophe.

  

  Valerie Jarrett
  • Change
  • Conflict
  • Global

• You learn different things through fiction. Historians are always making a plot about how certain things came to happen. Whereas a novelist looks at tiny little things and builds up a sort of map, like a painting, so that you see the shapes of things.

  

  A. S. Byatt
  • Up
  • Different
  • Painting

• I love the way people talk crap. I hear it all the time. 'Overrated.' 'You suck.' I'll just do something to shut them up, like, 'I'll show you.'

  

  Bryce Harper
  • People
  • Up
  • Time

• I've made a point of not being, say what I refer to as a 'careerist' about anything.

  

  Jon Brion

• Bad times, hard times, this is what people keep saying; but let us live well, and times shall be good. We are the times: Such as we are, such are the times.

  

  Saint Augustine
  • People
  • Time
  • Good

• People in power have to be careful about what comes out of their mouth. They have to find exactly the right word that can't be attacked.

  

  Anna Deavere Smith
  • People
  • Power