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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.
Anna Deavere Smith -
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.
Anna Deavere Smith
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Movies, as evidenced by a chorus of protesting and celebrating Americans, influence broader trends.
Anna Deavere Smith -
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.
Anna Deavere Smith -
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.
Anna Deavere Smith -
Not that many people, even contemporary writers, write about right now.
Anna Deavere Smith -
Making your life is ultimately an extraordinarily creative endeavor.
Anna Deavere Smith -
There's not a lot of flash about me.
Anna Deavere Smith
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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.
Anna Deavere Smith -
I would love to have been a documentary filmmaker; I just didn't have the resources to do that.
Anna Deavere Smith -
Learning is a tunnel experience that makes us think more broadly.
Anna Deavere Smith -
I don't talk a lot when I interview. My job is to get out of the way.
Anna Deavere Smith -
I love studying how people are. Not just what they're saying, but how they are, what they're doing.
Anna Deavere Smith -
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.
Anna Deavere Smith
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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?
Anna Deavere Smith -
I am lucky: I have fantastic doctors and a fantastic dentist.
Anna Deavere Smith -
I am interested in personal stories because that's when people become expressive, spontaneous and heartfelt.
Anna Deavere Smith -
You know, real artists, we expose our flaws. We long for intimacy.
Anna Deavere Smith -
When you think about it, words can break your heart, or they can change your day.
Anna Deavere Smith -
In my own life I'm frequently in predominantly white atmospheres.
Anna Deavere Smith