Anna Deavere Smith

My main concern is theater, and theater does not reflect or mirror society. It has…

When I got out of acting school, I was lucky to have gotten any job…

I made a real specific decision when I came out of school and most artists…

Learning is a tunnel experience that makes us think more broadly…

The American idea is as promising, imaginative, and full of the unexpected as the land…

I feel like my work has been my path to freedom from having grown up…

I think we need leadership that helps us remember that part of what we are…

Somehow we can’t live outside the politics of race. There’s something very deep in all…

To live your life well, and have respect for what came before or after – there’s…

President Obama called for a ‘we’ nation in his Inauguration Address. Art convenes. It is…

People who are sick, or who have been sick, or have come close to death…

Movies, as evidenced by a chorus of protesting and celebrating Americans, influence broader trends…

I was a mimic when I was a child. I mimicked the teacher and made…

Friendship is a wildly underrated medication…

I think it’s really important to give yourself a very big question that you’re working…