Quotes from Octavia Spencer

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

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

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 am an advocate of education. It is the panacea for all that ails us in our society.

Needless to say, I would have loved to have been a black belt instead of actually just wearing one to hold up my pants!

No person is just one particular emotion.

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

Be happy in your own skin.

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

Your parents only want what's best for you. They know a career in the arts usually means living paycheck to paycheck; they just want you to know that you have other options!

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.

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.

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

Women drive box office.

I'm reading today because of 'Encyclopedia Brown.'

My idea of success is not Oscars. Am I glad I have that little trinket? Yes, I am. But it depends on how you define success. The minute I got my first professional cheque from Joel Schumacher, I was successful. Somebody's paying me to act!

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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