I see myself first and foremost as a student of expression.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of continuous learning and self-expression.
In this quote, Anna Deavere Smith articulates her identity as a lifelong learner, highlighting the necessity of understanding and mastering the art of expression. She positions herself as a student, suggesting that true artistry involves a dedication to growth, exploration, and the relentless pursuit of knowledge in how we communicate and connect with others.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of art education, one might quote Anna Deavere Smith to emphasize the role of ongoing learning in expression.
If I do three interviews in a day, I can be exhausted, because the process of hearing everyone requires that I empty out myself. While I'm listening, my own judgments and prejudices certainly come up. But I know I won't get anything unless I get those things out of the way.
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.
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 of the people that are caught in the middle of their own reality.
Even jealousy is based on fantasies: a fantasy that someone else has what belongs to you.
Each person has a literature inside them.
I think we can learn a lot about a person in the very moment that language fails them. In the very moment they they have to be more creative than they would have imagined in order to communicate. It's the very moment that they have to dig deeper than the surface to find words, and at the same time, it's a moment when they want to communicate very badly. They're digging deep and projecting out at the same time.
I was trained to be an actor, not a star.
To work magic is to weave the unseen forces into form; to soar beyond sight; to explore the uncharted dream realm of the hidden reality; to infuse life with color, motion and strange scents that intoxicate; to leap beyond imagination into that space between the worlds where fantasy becomes real; to be at once animal and god. Magic is...the ultimate adventure.
I find it relatively easy to keep my clothes on because I don't really feel like taking them off. It's not an urge I have. For me, 'risky' is revealing what really happened in my life through music. Risky is writing confessional songs and telling the true story about a person with enough details so everyone knows who that person is. That's putting myself out there, maybe even more than taking my shirt off.
Architecture is a very dangerous job. If a writer makes a bad book, eh, people don't read it. But if you make bad architecture, you impose ugliness on a place for a hundred years.
Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal.
You can't just tell actors, especially young ones, to 'act happy' and expect them to do it. They must in some essential way be happy.
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