Top 75 Octavia Spencer Quotes

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

The worst is when I know I’m going to have to cry in a scene.

As you make your way along life’s tumultuous highways, it’s important to note that you should always carry a map, have plenty of fuel in the tank, and take frequent rest stops.

I love working with kids and seeing the light come on when they realize they are smart. It’s so beautiful to watch.

I think diversity is something that should be celebrated because it’s who we are as a world, and little kids need to be able to turn on the TV and see real-world representations of themselves. It’s very important.

Civil rights happened because youth got involved. The youth stood up and helped to break the pattern that their parents had got accustomed to living. The next generation has to take that stand for whatever it is, socially, that they are involved in.

You cannot live to please everyone else. You have to edify, educate and fulfill your own dreams and destiny, and hope that whatever your art is that you’re putting out there, if it’s received, great, I respect you for receiving it. If it’s not received, great, I respect you for not.

I think that young women and little girls need to see that they don’t have to be the damsel in distress. They don’t have to not show their strength. They don’t have to be whatever the stereotype is or the tropes that we go to in our minds.

Weight issues, race issues will always be there and if you allow them to get to you and you allow them to affect you then yes they affect you. But my thing is I have so many other things to worry about I can’t worry about other people’s perception of me.

What’s so great about DreamWorks is that it’s run by filmmakers who believe that if it’s not broke, don’t fix it.

If a little black girl in Montgomery, Alabama, or some far-reaching region sees something that I do and aspires to do it one day with the knowledge that she can achieve it, then hey, my work is done.

You would not believe that Paula Patton and I have the same trainer.

I’m probably the most militant person you’ll ever meet and I speak my mind without provocation sometimes.

When you see results, you start to wonder, ‘What would happen if I had oatmeal instead of sausage for breakfast?’ You start to eat better because you feel better.

I am not maternal at all. I don’t have any kids.

I have an affinity for the law. I like looking at the small type on contracts, and if I could have afforded law school, I probably would have gone.

I am not trying to conform to an unrealistic model of beauty. I am, however, being proactive in being the healthiest I can be.

I hope that in some way that I can be some sort of beacon of hope, especially because I am not the typical Hollywood beauty.

I think if we give kids a break in education, we would have fewer crimes being committed. If we keep them on track, they know that they have options. It’s important for me because, you know, my life would’ve been different had I not had the education that I had.

As a kid, I was always very thin, and I kind of didn’t know that I was skinny.

Every day that I live, I try to find the beauty in things.

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

I think my role, I want to have a presence both behind the scenes and in front of the camera. So I can’t say on one particular thing, so I’ll just name them all. I’ll be the jack of all trades and hopefully decent at one of them.

It’s been pretty effortless with Sensa because I am not thinking about how long do I need to do this. Usually, when you stop a diet program, you lose control again. But I don’t need to stop what I’m doing. I’m eating everything that I like. Sensa just helps me keep it all in check.

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

What surprised me about the Oscars was how familiar it was – because you’re in the room with all these people that have inspired you from your childhood to adulthood in the film industry. It feels like you’ve known them all of your life.

My hat’s off to Shonda Rhimes.

I’m thrilled I got to work with James Ponsoldt, who is going to make his mark on this industry.

Life is too short, and I need to eat. I am my meanest when I haven’t had a meal.

Do I feel that white directors have to tell only white stories? No. Do I feel that black filmmakers should only tell stories about black people? No. If we say that, then that means Asian people cannot write about anybody but Asians. I don’t think a woman should only write about women.

Will Smith would not be Worldwide Will Smith if he had not insisted on going worldwide and touring with his films. You have to build that audience for people and allow for it to happen.

I’m an Oscar nominee. I love saying that. Whatever happens, I’m going to sing that ‘I’m an Oscar nominee’ part.

Meeting Oprah Winfrey, I cried like a baby. Meeting Steven Spielberg, I cried like a baby. Meeting Denzel Washington, I gushed like a crazy woman. If I don’t get excited or star struck by someone I’ve been dying to meet, it’s time to retire.

I think the paradigm is shifting with regard to women and what we bring to the industry. I feel very blessed.

The misperception about the South is that everybody is racist, and all black people are victims, that what was prevalent in the ’60s is only relegated to the South.

The mentality of how we treat one another needs to be examined – especially how we treat our men of color.

I gravitate to the roles, not necessarily television or film. It’s just the fact that, for me, the most interesting roles have been in television.

I literally don’t think about Oscar.

‘Grey’s Anatomy’ is a very culturally diverse show.

I feel for the overly thin women as I do for the overweight women.

I think if I weren’t so squeamish, I would have been some sort of forensic analyst. And I can’t do anything with a microscope, because then I start thinking about the world of germs around us.

I want to see more Asian. I want to see more Latin. I want more Indian. There’s more than Mindy Kaling out there, guys! There’s more than Bai Ling.

Tough love is the hardest to give.

I’m not trying to be a different weight. I want to be a different body type so that I’m not an apple. I just want to be a pear!

The thing about the South is we accept our history. We don’t push it under the rug.

Angry or not. It’s a human emotion. But you can’t walk around being angry all the time. What a dull person you’d have to be!

My mom always told me I could do or be anything I dared to dream, and I always wanted to work in the movie industry.

No person is just one particular emotion.

Let me tell you, my career went from zero to 900. Its hard keeping up with that pace, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything else in the world.

Being a part of a large family is just like a little society: those who fight to the top of the heap. We relied on each other and still do. They never discouraged me or told me to get a proper job.

I gravitate to whatever looks good on me and whatever maakes me feel sexy.

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

If you tell me I can’t eat something, I’ll obsess over it and end up overeating!

I’m a woman who eventually will get married and have kids – adopted at this point – but I see myself with a family and less time to commit to wanting to be a lead character.

I don’t have one role that I want to play. I guess… I want to be a producer. I want to be an activist. I want to be proactive in bringing about work for men, women, boys, girls, everybody who is good at what they do and deserve a shot at it.

I’ll say that I don’t think you can throw a stone and not come in contact with someone who knows someone or has problems with substance abuse.

People think that I have this wonderful hourglass figure, but I owe that to designer Tadashi Shoji because he cuts for me really well.

I’ve seen too many sunrises, as far as the walk of shame, staying out too late doing very bad things.

I was an intern on a film called ‘The Long Walk Home.’

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

You know, bigotry isn’t relevant to just the South. It never was. But I’m very grateful that I don’t know what it’s like from experience.

You have to create your own path and I’m up to the challenge.

If more women ate, they would be a lot happier. Let me tell you, I am a lot grumpier when I don’t eat.

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.

The pace of television is very different from film.

I’m not an optimist. I’m a realist. And my reality is that we live in a multifaceted, multicultural world. And maybe once we stop labeling ourselves, then maybe everyone else will.