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Quote by Anna Deavere Smith

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Anna Deavere Smith
Anna Deavere Smith

Anna Deavere Smith is an American actress, playwright, and director. She is known for her performances on stage and screen, particularly for her roles in 'Fires in the Mirror' and 'House of Cards'. Smith is celebrated for her unique performance style and profound insights into social issues. more

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“We who are in the arts are at the risk of being in a popularity contest rather than a profession. If that fact causes you despair . . . pick another profession. Your desire to communicate must be bigger than your relationship with the chaotic and unfair realities . . . We have to create our own standards of discipline.”

IfsArtFactsRealityDesireCausesRiskDisciplineDespairStandardsPicksBiggerCommunicateProfessionOur RelationshipPopularityUnfairContestsChaoticPopularity Contest
Author:Anna Deavere Smith
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“What you are will show, ultimately. Start now, every day, becoming, in your actions, your regular actions, what you would like to become in the bigger scheme of things.”

ShowsActionBecomingBiggerSchemes
Book:Letters to a Young Artist: Straight-up Advice on Making a Life in the Arts-For Actors, Performers, Writers, and Artists of Every Kind
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“I come from a tradition of Western culture, in which the ideal (my ideal) was the complex, dense, and 'cathedral-like' structure of the highly educated and articulate personality--a man or woman who carried inside themselves a personally constructed and unique version of the entire heritage of the West. [But now] I see within us all (myself included) there placement of complex inner density with a new kind of self--evolving under the pressure of information overload and the technology of the 'instantly available.'”

MenKindSelfCultureTechnologyInformationPersonalityUniqueIdealsTraditionPressureStructureWestComplexesWesternAvailableVersionsEducatedEvolveHeritageCathedralsDenseWestern CultureDensityOverloadPlacementInformation Overload
Author:Richard Foreman
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“Everything Brecht wrote—plays, dialogues, and poetry—was his attempt to clarify the inner contradictions not only of the capitalism and fascism of his times, but also of the communism that was always disappointing his deepest hopes. In a book that makes Brecht’s struggle to reveal these hidden contradictions its central theme, Glahn issues, by implication, a call to arms to today’s artists—who are faced with a world that seems to defy attempts to treat the global crisis with an art that is rarely more than notes on ‘local’ angst.”

WorldArtBookPlaySeemsTodayArtistStruggleIssuesArmsCapitalismTreatsCrisisNotesLocalsDialogueCommunismThemeContradictionFascismImplicationsAngstDisappointingBrecht
Author:Richard Foreman
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