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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
Trying
Outsiders
Always
Frequently
Center
Distance
Tradition
Name
Names
Keep
Margins
More quotes by Anna Deavere Smith
I think it's really important to give yourself a very big question that you're working on that you can come home to.
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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 happen to be a hopeaholic. I tend to look at problems as an opportunity to do some work.
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That artists are called to be more responsible and 'true' is a tip of hat to their power.
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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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Artists are the people that no matter what, pick up the pen, pick up a paintbrush. They take the time to translate what is happening to create something that resonates deeply with the rest of the people that are caught in the middle of their own reality.
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For me, first of all, I love people, I love ideas.
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Probably the person who said the only color in Los Angeles is green was right.
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Listening is not just hearing what someone tells you word for word. You have to listen with a heart. I don't want that to sound touchy-feely it is not. It is very hard work.
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Identity is an assemblage of constellations.
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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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Movies, as evidenced by a chorus of protesting and celebrating Americans, influence broader trends.
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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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The American idea is as promising, imaginative, and full of the unexpected as the land itself. The land represents freedom - the frontier, the ability to make a new future with your own bare hands.
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I don't talk a lot when I interview. My job is to get out of the way.
Anna Deavere Smith
I am interested in personal stories because that's when people become expressive, spontaneous and heartfelt.
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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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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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Do you want to be an artist so that the whole world will look at you, or do you want to be an artist because you would like to use your ability to attract attention, to have the world see itself through you differently?
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I think we need leadership that helps us remember that part of what we are about is caring about more than the person right next to us, but the folks across the way.
Anna Deavere Smith
