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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.
Anna Deavere Smith
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Anna Deavere Smith
Age: 74
Born: 1950
Born: September 18
Academic
Actor
Actress
Film Actor
Playwright
Screenwriter
Stage Actor
Television Actor
University Teacher
Writer
Baltimore
Maryland
Anna Smith
Anna Devere Smith
Anna Deveare Smith
Talk
Seems
Many
Loaded
Every
Inadequate
People
Vocabulary
Emotionally
Afraid
Race
More quotes by Anna Deavere Smith
I was a mimic when I was a child. I mimicked the teacher and made friends that way, actually. That was a very subversive activity, because I was a goody-goody who never got in trouble. But if I went off in the corner and mimicked the teacher, people loved it.
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Somehow we can't live outside the politics of race. There's something very deep in all of us, that is taught to us when we are very, very little. Which is the disrespect and fear of the other.
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Learning is a tunnel experience that makes us think more broadly.
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When I got out of acting school, I was lucky to have gotten any job at all. A lot of people hiring African American actresses - it was right after 'Roots,' and for society, not me, it was great. Nice richly dark-skinned people was the fashion, and I was not.
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Probably the person who said the only color in Los Angeles is green was right.
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I see myself as not a typical theater person, but a person who uses the theater as a place to meet people and explore ideas.
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Be more than ready. Be present in your discipline. Remember your gift. Be grateful for your gift and treat it like a gift. Cherish it, take care of it, and pass it on.
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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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Then everyone leaves, and you are left, each night, to your own devices with a crowd of interesting people - most of whom you don't know - sitting in the dark.
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What my work is, is my approach to it. It's the practice. And my work is about the effort that I make to get there. And I think if there's anything artistic, it's in that middle space.
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I have a lot of optimism about new doctors because I think it's really clear that it's a lot of hard work and no guarantee of a lot of money.
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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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Art simply can’t be stopped.
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You are an explorer. You understand that every time you go into the studio, you are after something that does not yet exist.
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A lot of acting techniques are very self-oriented.
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Some people study a text very deeply. The people are my text. I study their words and what their words sound like, over and over again.
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I am interested in personal stories because that's when people become expressive, spontaneous and heartfelt.
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I think as a kid I always liked to listen to people. I loved hearing stories.
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Movies, as evidenced by a chorus of protesting and celebrating Americans, influence broader trends.
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Poverty makes it very difficult in an already competitive world for kids to get on a straight track where they can actually love learning.
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