Anna Deavere Smith

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

Exercise Hang Minute

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

Country Educated People

I think it's really important to give yourself a very big question that you're working on that you can come home to, even if you, you know, are going to have to go without a cup of coffee or even a meal, that that should nourish you. Anna Deavere Smith

Coffee Home Important

Because of the generation in which I came into the world, there were expectations. Of course there were expectations. It was something having to do with being a respectable Negro woman who would make the people in Baltimore proud. Anna Deavere Smith

Expectations Generation

That artists are called to be more responsible and 'true' is a tip of hat to their power. Anna Deavere Smith

More Power quotations about hats

Well, the terrible thing right now, and I don't know the statistics, but there's a growing concern in some communities about how rapidly people are sent from school to jail, how quickly they're put into the criminal justice system. And of course the rapidly growing number of brown people, both men and women, in prison. And this is terrible. Anna Deavere Smith

Justice man and woman related Men

Identity is an assemblage of constellations. Anna Deavere Smith

Assemblage Constellations Identity

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

Down Possibilities special moment

My main concern is theater, and theater does not reflect or mirror society. It has been stingy and selfish, and it has to do better. Anna Deavere Smith

Better Mirror Selfish

I feel like my work has been my path to freedom from having grown up in a segregated environment. Anna Deavere Smith

Feel Freedom Path

I mean, I think that - as an actress, in particular, I'm basically a fool, and I see the world upside down. Anna Deavere Smith

Down Fool

President Obama called for a 'we' nation in his Inauguration Address. Art convenes. It is not just inspirational. It is aspirational. It pricks the walls of our compartmentalized minds, opens our hearts and makes us brave. And that's what we need most in our country today. Anna Deavere Smith

Art Inspirational quotations on walls

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

Caring Leadership Remember

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. Anna Deavere Smith

Truth Voice Way

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

Hard Work Money Optimism

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. Anna Deavere Smith

Hard Work Heart Listening

Friendship is a wildly underrated medication. Anna Deavere Smith

Friendship Medication Underrated