I don't talk a lot when I interview. My job is to get out of the way. Anna Deavere Smith More Quotes by Anna Deavere Smith More Quotes From Anna Deavere Smith I mean, I think a healthy country is a country where people are healthy physically, and a smart country is a country where people are educated. Anna Deavere Smith smart mean country 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. Anna Deavere Smith people art thinking 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. Anna Deavere Smith funeral remember father I love studying how people are. Not just what they're saying, but how they are, what they're doing. Anna Deavere Smith study people A lot of acting techniques are very self-oriented. Anna Deavere Smith technique acting self I see myself first and foremost as a student of expression. Anna Deavere Smith students expression firsts I am interested in personal stories because that's when people become expressive, spontaneous and heartfelt. Anna Deavere Smith heartfelt stories people I would love to have been a documentary filmmaker; I just didn't have the resources to do that. Anna Deavere Smith documentaries filmmaker resources 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 creative order thinking 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. Anna Deavere Smith fashion nice jobs 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. Anna Deavere Smith land hands ideas You hang around actors, or dancers, the minute you sneeze, everybody has a remedy, and we're all on a million different kinds of diets, and different kinds of things that we do for exercise. Anna Deavere Smith sneezing dancer exercise If I do three interviews in a day, I can be exhausted, because the process of hearing everyone requires that I empty out myself. While I'm listening, my own judgments and prejudices certainly come up. But I know I won't get anything unless I get those things out of the way. Anna Deavere Smith prejudice three listening I have never been in a violent movie or television show. Anna Deavere Smith violent shows television I'm interested when things are upside down - because there are so many possibilities in that one moment. There is a lot that is exposed. Anna Deavere Smith upside-down possibility moments I never know when somebody's going to knock on the door of my own unconscious in a way that I wouldn't have anticipated. Anna Deavere Smith unconscious doors way 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. Anna Deavere Smith space practice thinking 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. Anna Deavere Smith doctors hard-work thinking I feel like my work has been my path to freedom from having grown up in a segregated environment. Anna Deavere Smith environment path feels 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 always-trying distance names
