Anna Deavere Smith Quotes

I read part of it all the way through.

The reason that fiction is more interesting than any other form of literature, to those who really like to study people, is that in fiction the author can really tell the truth without humiliating himself.

I do tend to be an analyzer. I'm an old English major from way back, so I do have fun tearing apart texts and trying to find the hidden secrets and the subtexts in there.

I'm definitely an observer of human behavior. I always have been.

I find something very appealing about taking literature very literally.

I love to study people, and that's basically what sociology is.

I just watch a lot of different films and different TV shows. Really for me, it's just looking at how people react to different shows in different genres. For me, it's more a study of people than a study of acting.

most people prefer to carry out the kinds of experiments that allow the scientist to feel that he is in full control of the situation rather than surrendering himself to the situation, as one must in studying human beings as they actually live.

It is no use trying to sum people up. One must follow hints, not exactly what is said, nor yet entirely what is done.

I prefer to watch people.

What more powerful form of study of mankind could there be than to read our own instruction book?

Science explained people, but could not understand them.

The greatest texts, I think, first dazzle, then with careful rereading, they instruct. I have learned from Virginia Woolf more than I even know how to articulate.

My idea of teaching literature is just to read great passages aloud or to look at it the way a writer does, which is what I try to do. Which is to say, 'How does this writer do this? How did he order his scenes? Do you notice any pattern to his sentences?'

I am an observant. I like to observe people.

I love to study people and pick apart what makes a person or character who they are. I never want to get complacent in that.

I was really grateful to have a chance to have some really in-depth study about the power of language using a philosopher who taught at the University of Chicago by the name of Paul Ricoeur. I'm really happy to be in Chicago because a lot of what I do is rooted in his approach to language.

Teaching literature is teaching how to read. How to notice things in a text that a speed-reading culture is trained to disregard, overcome, edit out, or explain away; how to read what the language is doing, not guess what the author was thinking; how to take evidence from a page, not seek a reality to substitute for it.

People Propose, Science Studies, Technology Conforms.

Devotees of grammatical studies have not been distinguished for any very remarkable felicities of expression

If you would understand your own age, read the works of fiction produced in it. People in disguise speak freely.

I'm very interested in people, so if a character happens to be real, there's that much more to look at.

Personally, as a student who loves words, who loves texts, I am concerned with finding something in the text from within.

If you can learn to understand people how they think, what they feel, what inspires them, how they're likely to act and react in a given situation- then you can motivate and influence them in a positive way.

It is my contention that the process of reading is part of the process of writing, the necessary completion without which writing can hardly be said to exist.