Anna Deavere Smith Quotes
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I talk about race a lot. It's been my work ever since I came out of acting school. But it's true that in a way talking about race is a taboo. Because so many of our debates about race have to do not with race but with what we are willing to see, what we will not see and what we don't want to see.
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My work is about giving voice to the unheard, and reiterating the voice of the heard in such a way that you question, or re-examine, what is the truth.
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You know if we were to look back and how we were in 1955 living in Jim Crow, living in segregation, living in segregated schools, it's hard to believe that it was America, but it really was.
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Not that many people, even contemporary writers, write about right now.
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Many people are afraid to talk about race because it's so emotionally loaded. We don't have the vocabulary to talk about it. Every day, our vocabulary seems more and more inadequate.
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Movies, as evidenced by a chorus of protesting and celebrating Americans, influence broader trends.
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Making your life is ultimately an extraordinarily creative endeavor.
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I'm interested when things are upside down - because there are so many possibilities in that one moment. There is a lot that is exposed.
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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.
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I made a real specific decision when I came out of school and most artists were writing about home - if you were a woman, you were writing about being a woman - and I decided not to do that, write about what you know. That's not what I do. I went as far away from home as possible in terms of the development of my imagination.
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Racism has been for everyone like a horrible, tragic car crash, and we've all been heavily sedated from it. If we don't come into consciousness of this tragedy, there's going to be a violent awakening we don't want. The question is, can we wake up?
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There's not a lot of flash about me.
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I love studying how people are. Not just what they're saying, but how they are, what they're doing.
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Learning is a tunnel experience that makes us think more broadly.
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I am lucky: I have fantastic doctors and a fantastic dentist.
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I would love to have been a documentary filmmaker; I just didn't have the resources to do that.
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You know, real artists, we expose our flaws. We long for intimacy.
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When you think about it, words can break your heart, or they can change your day.
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In my own life I'm frequently in predominantly white atmospheres.
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I am interested in personal stories because that's when people become expressive, spontaneous and heartfelt.