Anna Deavere Smith Quotes
Quotes to Explore
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To be honest, I think, for me, the power is always with art. The art world clearly couldn't happen without art.
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I'm confident in who I am. I've come to a place in my life where I've accepted things that are me, as opposed to feeling pressure to explain myself to people around me. That's just the way I've always tried to be. It didn't change when I became a star.
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I can't even read notes. But I can teach someone how to make a guitar smoke.
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A high-quality public education can build much-needed skills and knowledge. It can help children reach their God-given potential. It can stabilize communities and democracies. It can strengthen economies. It can combat the kind of fear and despair that evolves into hatred.
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Sports should not become routine. It should be about passion.
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It's morally wrong to allow a sucker to keep his money.
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If you're walking down the right path and you're willing to keep walking, eventually you'll make progress.
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I was ready to get out of the box and play something a little different than what everybody has seen.
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Organizations are trying to save extra money. Players are trying to get extra money. That's the way it is.
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I've been the lull, and I've been the storm and also somewhere in between. But that's OK. I love the limelight after all.
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Looking back at my career, I wish I knew then what I know now... that gender bias is built into the system, and it's unconscious in many ways. I wish I had the maturity and courage to have pushed back more. I was always trying to be a 'good girl' and play by the rules.
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If you stood me in a costume next to a computer graphic of the same-looking character, I think there would be a difference. And many movie fans I've spoken to would rather see an actor in a costume than CG.
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I can't run my career based on someone else's ideology.
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I've had times where I've joked, like, 'I'm going to move to Vermont and become a painter.' And sometimes that joke felt like, 'Oh that's a good idea.' But it was only, like, a daydream for a moment to, like, escape.
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I think that's what is so cool about performing. When there is a show to do, you get up there and do it.
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I'm not really a model.
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I worry from the moment I take a job. I worry about how I'm going to do it, if I can do it... Then I walk on set and the director says, 'Roll', and all of a sudden, all of it disappears and it's all happening, and I relax, and I'm doing what I do, and I'm not even thinking about it.
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The entertainment industry is terrified of silence.
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One of the joys of teaching with the anthology is to watch the excitement grow as students, who may think the past dull and irrelevant, find how fresh and new and powerful are the kinds of writings that are hundreds of years old.
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Most of my avant garde fashion is saved for my videos and for the stage. In real life, I tend towards a classy, black Goth look. I love black, a few sparkles, false eyelashes and boots. But when I perform, I love fantasy and props.
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Our father always said, 'She'll come back to us.
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I can talk to anybody but when it comes to somebody that I like, then I turn into like this five-year-old kindergartener in a sandbox.
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I write plays about big, intense subjects.
