176 Quotes by Octavia Spencer

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.

Every character I get to play has some element of who I am, but there's no fun in playing yourself. At least, for me, there isn't.

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

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.

I didn't realize that diets don't work, and I did not want to diet. I didn't want to do anything that required dieting.

To be silent is to be passive.

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

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.

I’m not a fan of ‘Gone With the Wind.’ I didn’t like the movie. I didn’t like the book.