Top 35 Octavia Spencer Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “The way to bring about change is to be proactive and active.”

— Octavia Spencer

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

— Octavia Spencer

3. “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.”

— Octavia Spencer

4. “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.”

— Octavia Spencer

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

— Octavia Spencer

6. “I gotta go home and feed my eels. They’re not electric, but I have a plan.”

— Octavia Spencer

7. “The one thing that I realize – well, not the one thing, but it was a big thing – having in my head that I need to get healthier. It’s been a very gradual process for me.”

— Octavia Spencer

8. “One thing I’ve learned is be comfortable in your skin, and more importantly, be comfortable in your shoes.”

— Octavia Spencer

9. “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.”

— Octavia Spencer

10. “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.”

— Octavia Spencer

11. “I was always a closet lover of acting. My mom was very practical. She never, ever restricted our dreams, always told us we could do or be anything. Then I said, Maybe I want to be an actor. And she said, Maybe not that.”

— Octavia Spencer

12. “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.”

— Octavia Spencer

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

— Octavia Spencer

14. “I’m starstruck everyday. The day I’m not starstruck, I’ll have to retire.”

— Octavia Spencer

15. “Christian Louboutin, I love you, but honey, please! But when you have this much weight, you’ve got to give us a little platform. Sorry! The shoes are stunning though. An ounce of pain, it’s worth it.”

— Octavia Spencer

16. “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.”

— Octavia Spencer

17. “I was starstruck and sweat a lot when I met Oprah Winfrey and tried to hug her. Because when you think you know people when you see them from your couch.”

— Octavia Spencer

18. “I like a person who knows how to say something dark at a very dark moment. The darker the moment and the darker the comic, the better. Something that is so wrong on all levels.”

— Octavia Spencer

19. “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.”

— Octavia Spencer

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

— Octavia Spencer

21. “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.”

— Octavia Spencer

22. “To be silent is to be passive.”

— Octavia Spencer

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

— Octavia Spencer

24. “As we women know, there are so many other hurdles that we have to cross that I would love it if we could stop having the race conversation so that we can get women further on. You know, a female president now that we have an African American president. Maybe we can get an Asian female, a gay person?”

— Octavia Spencer

25. “You never write a speech in advance because if you don’t get to use it, you’ll be heartbroken.”

— Octavia Spencer

26. “I’m an actor and I am looking for roles where I can continue to evolve, and things that are challenging. 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.”

— Octavia Spencer

27. “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.”

— Octavia Spencer

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

— Octavia Spencer

29. “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!”

— Octavia Spencer

30. “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.”

— Octavia Spencer

31. “Let’s just say that I have a tendency if I am uncomfortable in a situation to speak my mind.”

— Octavia Spencer

32. “I was not a Girl Scout, but I try to be very prepared. I triple-Spanx!”

— Octavia Spencer

33. “I prefer doing interviews where people don’t have to interpret what you say. I’m going to be real honest.”

— Octavia Spencer

34. “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.”

— Octavia Spencer

35. “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.”

— Octavia Spencer

36. “The fact that women are very young in obtaining their civil rights and African-Americans are young in obtaining their civil rights, I think it’s about time that we extend that to all Americans, whether straight, gay, purple, green, black, brown.”

— Octavia Spencer

37. “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.”

— Octavia Spencer

38. “I think it’s actually a misperception that I am a comedic actress. I do more drama than comedy but very little of it has been seen. When you are in big funny movies and they do well and your little part in it kind of explodes people perceive you as a comedian.”

— Octavia Spencer