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Those in the margins are always trying to get to the center, and those at the center, frequently in the name of tradition, are trying to keep the margins at a distance.

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
Tradition
Name
Names
Keep
Margins
Trying
Outsiders
Always
Frequently
Center
Distance

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If you think about what acting is supposed to be, my job is to disappear.
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Identity is an assemblage of constellations.
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Even jealousy is based on fantasies: a fantasy that someone else has what belongs to you.
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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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You've heard that old expression from Shakespeare, 'Just speak the speech'? The words themselves will take you to the reality of the character. And so this led me to interview people.
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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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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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I think as a kid I always liked to listen to people. I loved hearing stories.
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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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In my profession, I'm around a lot of people whose bodies are their instruments in one way or another.
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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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Confidence is the mark of a hopeful disposition.
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Learning is a tunnel experience that makes us think more broadly.
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Use your time to bathe yourself in the gift. Move your hand across the canvas. Go to museums. Make this into an obsession.
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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 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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I am lucky: I have fantastic doctors and a fantastic dentist.
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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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