Anna Deavere Smith Quotes

14 Sourced Quotes

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.

Anna Deavere Smith
I think we can learn a lot about a person in the very moment that language fails them. In the very moment they they have to be more creative than they would have imagined in order to communicate. It's the very moment that they have to dig deeper than the surface to find words, and at the same time, it's a moment when they want to communicate very badly. They're digging deep and projecting out at the same time.

Anna Deavere Smith
Even jealousy is based on fantasies: a fantasy that someone else has what belongs to you.

Anna Deavere Smith
What you are will show, ultimately. Start now, every day, becoming, in your actions, your regular actions, what you would like to become in the bigger scheme of things.

Anna Deavere Smith
Speaking teaches us what our natural "literature" is. In fact, everyone, in a given amount of time, will say something that is like poetry.

Anna Deavere Smith
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
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
Art should take what is complex and render it simply. It takes a lot of skill, human understanding, stamina, courage, energy, and heart to do that.

Anna Deavere Smith
In America, identity is always being negotiated.

Anna Deavere Smith
Perhaps art is a quest for the perfect, or even the imperfect. Reality always falls short on both sides.

Anna Deavere Smith
My job in my work is not to acquire power; it's to question power.

Anna Deavere Smith
Your desire to communicate must be bigger than your relationship with the chaotic and unfair realities.

Anna Deavere Smith
You are an explorer. You understand that every time you go into the studio, you are after something that does not yet exist.

Anna Deavere Smith
Confidence is a static state. Determination is active. Determination allows for doubt and for humility - both of which are critical in the world today. There is so much that we don't know, and so much that we know we don't know. To be overly confident or without doubt seems silly to me. Determination, on the other hand, is a commitment to win, a commitment to fight the good fight.

Anna Deavere Smith