Anna Deavere Smith
Anna Deavere Smith
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionActress
Date of Birth18 September 1950
CountryUnited States of America
individuality identity constellations
Identity is an assemblage of constellations.
television violent shows
I have never been in a violent movie or television show.
fashion jobs nice
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.
hands land ideas
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.
people study
I love studying how people are. Not just what they're saying, but how they are, what they're doing.
country smart mean
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.
mean thinking world-upside-down
I mean, I think that - as an actress, in particular, I'm basically a fool, and I see the world upside down.
doors way unconscious
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.
father funeral remember
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.
political haute-couture language
I call the language of political figures, pundits and administrators 'the haute couture of language.'
expression firsts students
I see myself first and foremost as a student of expression.
art thinking people
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.
documentaries resources filmmaker
I would love to have been a documentary filmmaker; I just didn't have the resources to do that.
upside-down moments possibility
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.