Anna Deavere Smith Quotes

I think an artist's responsibility is more complex than people realize.

As an artist, we have a big influence, and we should always think if we are doing more harm than good to our viewers. We should serve as a model to them.

I feel like, if I'm going to have young, impressionable people listening to my music, then I'm going to respect that.

I feel like I influence more than just rap.

I don't believe in very many things, but art is definitely one of them. And at the top of that list, film and art influence our world's culture much more than many of us understand and fully respect.

Actors are agents of change. A film, a piece of theater, a piece of music, or a book can make a difference. It can change the world.

I believe art has to take responsibility but it should not give up being art.

As a small businessperson, you have no greater leverage than the truth.

Art never harms itself by keeping aloof from the social problems of the day: rather, by so doing, it more completely realises for us that which we desire.

Plain truth, backed up by neither power or money, has no chance.

My perspective is that, when you're a kid, if your audience is a group of children or teenagers, you do have some level of social responsibility. I feel that.

I think you have a responsibility as an artist to continually reach a hand out and try and inspire people.

If there was a direct influence on a song, I never hid it.

I do think responsibility does come with a lot of power, and more than that, it comes with the fact that you can actually change the thinking of those not only in your country but in the countries where your films are watched.

I hope we go down in history for being something more than just another famous act that got ripped off.

It would, of course, be wrong to say that the arts have no social value. They have tremendous power and can often, indirectly, make our world a better place to live in.

With a movie, you have the power of putting out an idea about the world and for people to take it seriously.

We are ambassadors. We are leaders of our own brands, and then in life things are thrown at you, you have to stand up for what's right. That brings on a whole new role. It's not on the front of the agenda that you see, but if you read the fine print it's part of becoming an athlete and the pedestal you get with that.

I learned the power of storytelling and the responsibility that people with influence have to speak out

No writer or teacher or artist can escape the responsibility of influencing others whether he intends to or not, whether he is conscious of it or not.

Unless you are terribly, terribly careful, you run the danger-- without even knowing it is happening to you-- of slipping into the fatal error of reflecting the public taste instead of creating it. Your responsibility is to the public consciousness, not to the public view of itself.

In a world of lies and liars, an honest work of art is always an act of social responsibility.

I suppose all writers are crazy, but if they are any good, I believe they have a terrible honesty.

My responsibility is to truth and beauty.

Literature is subservient to nothing but truth.