Top 194 Quotes & Sayings by Octavia Spencer - Page 3

There's so much bigotry that needs to be overcome.

There are fewer and fewer roles that I haven't done already, or archetypes that I haven't played, and to break out of that box, the most interesting stuff is television.

The statement that I made and that I think I will continue to make is that racism and bigotry isn't just relegated to the Southern region; it permeates the history of our nation. It's not to say that we haven't made progress. Obviously we have with our first African American president, and I never thought that would happen in my lifetime.

I'm excited that I get to do what I love, and I'm benefiting through projects that speak to me.

People want to see something that isn't necessarily somebody walking around in a superhero costume.

Women drive box office.

My family supported me before any of this crazy notion of moving out to Hollywood and staking my claim. That support has never waned.

I want to be proactive in bringing about change and enlightening people.

Yes, you want to do studio movies, but I also want to grow as an actor, and an actress like me is not going to get roles where you grow and evolve in a studio film. It's just not gonna happen.

When my car broke down in L.A., nobody stopped. They just kept whizzing by.

We always think that we're going to be young forever, and now when I wake up, I need to stretch, and I need to have my glass of water and be cognizant of what I'm doing with my body.

Auditions make me nervous; any time I have to perform, I get stage fright.

The most I like about cooking is eating what someone else has cooked.

People want to see more diversity. That's why you have the Kevin Hart making $17 million dollars on a holiday weekend.

If you go through life and you don't find the beauty in an unexpected place, then you really have a sad existence.

Where I'm from, you learned about God before you learned to read and write. Our faith is what grounds us.

At 21, you can live life with reckless abandon, as reckless as your abandon is. Then, at 30, there's something there are the supposed to be's. You're like, "I'm supposed to be doing this. I'm supposed to be doing that." You start measuring your life by what you think you're supposed to be doing. Having recently turned 40, it's like, "What the hell?! Why am I worried about what I'm supposed to be doing? What do I want to do?" You become fine with wherever the road takes you.

I don't ever want to be the type of person to tell you what to think or what to believe. Whatever stage in your life that you are in, I want you to organically reach whatever conclusions that you possibly reach.

I do believe that we're all God's children.

I can only be the best version of myself and understand that the only way that we as a people can heal is to understand that the next person's journey may not be your own, but it doesn't mean that you have to marginalize them in any way.

The older you get, you always learn more. Sometimes it's a process of learning about yourself and what your journey is. Sometimes the process moves forward at a rapid pace in a short amount of time - or moves backwards. And you're like, "Man, I thought I had made so much progress, and now all of a sudden, I'm 10 steps further behind than when I started."

You just keep moving forward and doing what you do, and hope that it resonates with people. And if it doesn't, you just keep moving on until you find a project that does.

I don't think that moms, with all that's going on in our society today, would want to put their kids in front of something that will be disheartening rather than uplifting.

People who are overweight face discrimination. African-Americans face discrimination. Women face discrimination and sexism. So I don't have the luxury of not being tolerant of anyone.

What's not fair is having the responsibility of a supervisor but not the title or the pay.

I have experienced loss in my life, but the thing that brings you back is your faith.

We know longer live in a homogenous society, it is not black, white, Asian or Latin, it is a melting pot. Until we learn to assimilate and learn about other cultures, we will continue to have racism problems. Of course, there are other '-isms' as our ills. We have sexism, ageism, elitism, homophobia-ism, there are many -isms we have to overcome.

I want to find things that challenge me.

You can't be from Montgomery, Alabama, and not have a background in the church. It's at the core of who we are as a people.

It is important to learn as much as you can about the person and then throw it all away so that you're not in any way doing some sort of mimicry.

Even in my music, I am always searching for big, universal things - ways that you can sort of reach outside the norm of what you are doing.

My faith is tested daily.

I have always been very family-oriented. I came from a dysfunctional, broken family growing up, and it's probably instilled in me the need and the want to have a strong family and a great foundation. So I think that is something that I naturally gravitate toward.

I don't think you learn as much about yourself when you are moving forwards as when you have fallen backwards. That's when you really learn who you are. And reach for the things that have propelled you forward and made you a better person.

I can only live in my truth.

Our challenges make us unique, and how we deal with them makes us unique.

One thing I've learned is be comfortable in your skin, and more importantly, be comfortable in your shoes.

God in my mind gives you what you need. So, if you need God to be a black woman and you need that for whatever your reasons are, then perhaps your blessings will come in that form.

Unfortunately, there's a lack of roles for women of color, so you actually have to be the engineer creating some of those roles.

Only when you find the courage to say something to someone that might influence a change in your behavior, does that behavior change.

Because we all come from different circumstances, our life experiences really color how we view things.

As an actor, you don't become Meryl Streep by doing the same type of comedy. You get there by being challenged.

There is one thing about knowing history, and another in recreating it.

I choose projects that resonate with me on some personal level and projects that I'm afraid to do. If I'm afraid to do them, then I usually say yes, because it means that I'm not ready to go there and deal with certain aspects of the script.

I can't speak for what other artists should do. I can only tell you how I live.

I do believe that everyone has something to contribute.

I really believe things happen as they're supposed to and in the time that they're supposed to.

I look for roles that resonate with me these days. While I love putting out just fabulous entertainment, I think now as artists, especially with so much uncertainty going on in the world, you want to be a part of things that offer or promote healing in some way and perhaps a little introspection once you leave.

The things that scare you only make you better and stronger.

I'm attracted to things that make me want to be a better person.

I just know that the one thing that we all have in common is challenges. No one lives a challenge free life.

There are moments where you stop living, if you stop changing, and if you stop seeking growth of some sort.

It's very seldom that we see the good of the South. There is a perception that Southerners are racists and everyone else in the nation is 'enlightened.' There is racism everywhere, and there is good everywhere.

There are enough negative images of Black women out there and I did not want to portray Dorothy Vaughn in any stereotype. I wanted to make sure that her integrity was preserved.

My job as an artist is to present the material. My job as a woman is to receive from it what I need.

I hate to tell people what they should think 'cause I really have an aversion when people tell me what to think.

For me, when you have to prepare to play God, and then walking away from that, you realize just how tough God's job is. I don't want that job.

You have to get out of your comfort zone in order to grow.

Everything happens when it's supposed to.

As an actor, I've learned to become a detective. You have to figure out who that person is. If the character is a thief, you have to figure out what makes them a thief. Whatever the prevailing idiosyncrasy is, I have to find it in the script.