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.
People hide behind the word aesthetic. They say, ‘Well, it’s just that designer’s aesthetic.’ But when you see 18 seasons in a row and not one single model outside a certain skin color…? There are people in the industry who are advocates, who support diversity. And there are people who do not. I don’t get it. Beauty is universal. These doors have to open.
Oh Beautiful for smoggy skies, insecticided grain, _x000D_ For strip-mined mountain's majesty above the asphalt plain. _x000D_ America, America, man sheds his waste on thee, _x000D_ And hides the pines with billboard signs, from sea to oily sea.
Someone once wrote that a novel should deliver a series of small astonishments. I get the same thing spending an hour with you.
Although I am losing my Soviet citizenship, I do not cease to be a Russian poet.
Elemental Music is never just music. It's bound up with movement, dance and speech, and so it is a form of music in which one must participate, in which one is involved not as a listener bust as a co-performer.
I think good-looking people seldom make good television. And American television studios almost concede before they start: 'Well, it won't be good, but at least it'll be good-looking. We'll have nice-looking girls in tight shirts with F.B.I. badges and fit-looking guys with lots of hair gel vaulting over things.'
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