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You know, real artists, we expose our flaws. We long for intimacy.

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
Artist
Real
Long
Expose
Flaws
Intimacy
Artists

More quotes by Anna Deavere Smith

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Perhaps art is a quest for the perfect, or even the imperfect. Reality always falls short on both sides.
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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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I think that art is supposed to be ahead of the times.
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Probably the person who said the only color in Los Angeles is green was right.
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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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I remember from my father's funeral that the minister kept using a metaphor about life of a prism. And I took that away like a cherished image.
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I think what I am is a convener I like to convene people around ideas.
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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.
Anna Deavere Smith
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I don't talk a lot when I interview. My job is to get out of the way.
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For me, first of all, I love people, I love ideas.
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Making your life is ultimately an extraordinarily creative endeavor.
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I think as a kid I always liked to listen to people. I loved hearing stories.
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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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Discipline — both mental and physical — is crucial.
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I am interested in personal stories because that's when people become expressive, spontaneous and heartfelt.
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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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When I was a kid, my grandfather said that if you say a word often enough, it becomes you. Thinking of that later in life gave me this idea that I could try to become America by learning the words of people from many aspects of the country.
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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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Friendship is a wildly underrated medication.
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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.
Anna Deavere Smith