Anna Deavere Smith
Anna Deavere Smith
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionActress
Date of Birth18 September 1950
CountryUnited States of America
grateful discipline preparation
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.
fantasy
Even jealousy is based on fantasies: a fantasy that someone else has what belongs to you.
wall distance fighting
The individuals inside are frequently fighting that their individual voices be heard, while the walls of the place, which are the mask, and the perception, are reluctant to give over to the voices of the individuals. 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. Part of the identity of a place is the tension between those in the margins, and those in the center, and they all live behind the walls which wear the tradition.
dark night interesting
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.
kids track world
Poverty makes it very difficult in an already competitive world for kids to get on a straight track where they can actually love learning.
ideas people use
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.
doctors lucky dentist
I am lucky: I have fantastic doctors and a fantastic dentist.
medication underrated
Friendship is a wildly underrated medication.
opportunity looks problem
I happen to be a hopeaholic. I tend to look at problems as an opportunity to do some work.
curiosity
I am not myself; I am the potential of myself.
confidence hopeful mark
Confidence is the mark of a hopeful disposition.
path environment feels
I feel like my work has been my path to freedom from having grown up in a segregated environment.
distance names always-trying
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.