Somehow we can’t live outside the politics of race. There’s something very deep in all of us, that is taught to us when we are very, very little. Which is the disrespect and fear of the other. Anna Deavere Smith Read Quote
When you think about it, words can break your heart, or they can change your day. Anna Deavere Smith Read Quote
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 if I went off in the corner and mimicked the teacher, people loved it. Anna Deavere Smith Read Quote
I would love to have been a documentary filmmaker; I just didn’t have the resources to do that. Anna Deavere Smith Read Quote
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 Read Quote
To live your life well, and have respect for what came before or after – there’s a strong respect for that in African culture. Anna Deavere Smith Read Quote
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. Anna Deavere Smith Read Quote
Probably the person who said the only color in Los Angeles is green was right. Anna Deavere Smith Read Quote
