Anna Deavere Smith

“Each person has a literature inside them. But when people lose language, when they have to experiment with putting their thoughts together on the spot-that's what I love most. That's where c...”

“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 gr...”

“I talk about race a lot. It's been my work ever since I came out of acting school. But it's true that in a way talking about race is a taboo. Because so many of our debates about race have t...”

“I call the language of political figures, pundits and administrators 'the haute couture of language.'”

“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.”

“Identity is an assemblage of constellations.”

“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...”

“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...”

“We owe the government taxes. We owe our creditors interest. What do these powers owe us?”

“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, open...”

“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.”

“Artists are the people that no matter what, pick up the pen, pick up a paintbrush. They take the time to translate what is happening to create something that resonates deeply with the rest o...”

“We would like doctors to listen, but the fact is, we better be ready to be able to talk to them. You're going to have to be an active participant in that conversation, so I'd say the America...”

“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.”

“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.”

“People in power have to be careful about what comes out of their mouth. They have to find exactly the right word that can't be attacked.”

“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.”

“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.”

“I was a mimic when I was a child. I mimicked the teacher and made friends that way, actually. That was a very subversive activity, because I was a goody-goody who never got in trouble. But i...”

“I think a lot of L.A. is something like USC - this incredible white culture living in the midst of color, and no obvious reaction to it at all. I mean, they have guards at the gate at USC -...”