Anna Deavere Smith Quotes
If I do three interviews in a day, I can be exhausted, because the process of hearing everyone requires that I empty out myself. While I'm listening, my own judgments and prejudices certainly come up. But I know I won't get anything unless I get those things out of the way.
Quotes to Explore
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I turn into a crying, hysterical maniac when I see a spider. It's pathetic.
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It can be frightening to turn your back on what others think is right. But I'm not the same as a lot of people - I'm quite artistic and quite eccentric sometimes. If you honour that, you fit into yourself better - and people accept you for what you are.
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I've always really been interested in the Pygmalion myth and both what it has to say about creativity and what it has to say about relationships between men and women.
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I am not an American; I am the American.
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The first man to compare the cheeks of a young woman to a rose was obviously a poet; the first to repeat it was possibly an idiot.
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In China, we don't know about the swimming pool game, but we know about Marco Polo.
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The same parts of my brain get as excited as when I study bio or read a novel and write a paper on it.
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You need to make a trip to Des Moines in August, because the Iowa State Fair really is a sight to see. The Iowa Fairgrounds are usually packed for those 11 days, and you get a real sense of what a classic Midwest fair is all about.
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All of my life I have stayed away from violence and the instruments of violence, and have seen a legal, democratic struggle as the only means to achieve change.
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I started making music with my band in the '80s, so I am more product of post punk than classical music, and I have always carried on this way.
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I started writing 'The Lord of Opium' in 2008 and produced about 80 pages before disaster struck. Three eye operations nearly put an end to my career.
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You live these three months in this reality, in this dark reality. You don't want to do those films every year because they're taxing. I started smoking a lot of cigarettes.
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If I'm saying a universal truth, but maybe it's something that people don't feel comfortable saying... It's a strange take, but at the same time, what you're hitting on is kind of right. You can relate. That's the heart of comedy. You have to have a point of view. You gotta commit. And the more you commit to it, sometimes the funnier it gets.
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People who are over-educated become risk-averse.
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Sympathetic cracks. A term frequently used by architects and surveyors in terms of ageing houses. I know what they mean.
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Sometimes I feel I hope I am not taking advantage of my stardom.
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Passion is in all great searches and is necessary to all creative endeavors.
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It's very easy to live here. You're anonymous here. Nobody knows who you are.
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I always was getting into trouble some way, because I was really good at lying when I was a kid.
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Don't buy this 'believe in yourself' rubbish. Why do they keep telling youngsters that? There's no point believing in yourself if you don't know what you're doing. Once you've got a vision of what you want to do, by all means stick to that passionately and doggedly. Believe in your ideas. It's not quite the same thing.
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What is most important for Europe is economic growth and jobs, security at home and safety in the world.
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I will use my position as chairman emeritus on the Energy and Commerce Committee to try to bring some common sense to EPA regulations.
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You just get up each day and put one foot in front of the other and go. You know, each day is different.
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If I do three interviews in a day, I can be exhausted, because the process of hearing everyone requires that I empty out myself. While I'm listening, my own judgments and prejudices certainly come up. But I know I won't get anything unless I get those things out of the way.
