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
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.
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.
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.
I'm probably the most militant person you'll ever meet and I speak my mind without provocation sometimes.
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.
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.
We as women have a voice and we are decision makers in what film to see. We always support our boyfriends and husbands by going to see the male dominated films, but we don't compel them to see films with female casts.
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.
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.
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.
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 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'.
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?
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'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 prefer doing interviews where people don't have to interpret what you say. I'm going to be real honest.
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.
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.
Let's just say that I have a tendency if I am uncomfortable in a situation to speak my mind.
What I love about Tadashi is that he isn't a designer that designs only for a double-zero. He designs for double-Ds, you know? Women of all shapes and sizes can wear him.
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.
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.
To be silent is to be passive.
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 just think that you have to believe in yourself and you have to work very hard. You can't ever think that you're the best thing since sliced bread because I promise you, there are going to be Viola Davises and Jessica Chastains and Emma Stones who are the best thing since sliced bread. So take it seriously, but don't take it too seriously.
I'm not a fan of 'Gone With the Wind.' I didn't like the movie. I didn't like the book.
I'm an Oscar nominee. I love saying that. Whatever happens, I'm going to sing that 'I'm an Oscar nominee' part.
I was a production assistant. I saw what people who are full of themselves are like - another reason not to lose your humility! I have a mouth on me so I wasn't the best P.A.
The way to bring about change is to be proactive and active.
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.
The reality is that there are so few roles out there for women and for women of color, and I'm a character actor, this I know. And I'm getting to see more of the roles that are out there, but there aren't many. And zilch have been studio movies. Zilch.
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 first time I saw E.T., the actual image of an alien, and he was so sweet-looking. I wanted him. I wanted E.T.
