I like to read, even though it was really tough, because I could go anywhere in the world in a book, and I could have so many adventures in a book.
Interpretation
Reading opens up worlds and experiences that would otherwise be inaccessible.
In this quote, Octavia Spencer highlights the transformative power of reading. Despite the challenges that come with it, the act of reading allows individuals to escape into different worlds, embark on countless adventures, and experience life through different perspectives and narratives. This emphasizes the importance of literature in personal growth and understanding the vast possibilities of imagination.
In practice
During a book club meeting discussing the joy of reading.
You have to get out of your comfort zone in order to grow. And as an actor, you don't become Meryl Streep by doing the same type of comedy. You get there by being challenged. And unfortunately, there's a lack of roles for women of color, so you actually have to be the engineer creating some of those roles.
I don't think there will ever be a time I don't write, and I hope there will never be a time I don't act.
There are so few roles out there. And even if it is a film that could be led by a black actress, how many times is that film going to get funded? Let's just be real. But it's not just black people. It's Asians, it's Hispanic people if you're not Salma Hayek. It's hard. It's hard to get films funded.
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.
You just keep moving forward and doing what you do and hope that it resonates with people. And if it doesn't, you just keep moving on until you find a project that does.
If you go through life, and you don't find the beauty in an unexpected place, then you really have a sad existence.
The tragedy is that society (your school, your boss, your government, your family) keeps drumming the genius part out. The problem is that our culture has engaged in a Faustian bargain, in which we trade our genius and artistry for apparent stability.
I read Carver. Julio Cortazar. Amis's essays. Baldwin. Lorrie Moore. Capote. Saramago. Larkin. Wodehouse. Anything, anything at all, that doesn't sound like me.
Freedom to learn is the first necessity of guaranteeing that man himself shall be self reliant enough to be free.
I used to walk in a bookstore and see all these books on the walls. And I would say, 'Who wants to hear from me? What do I have to add to all of this?'
We are all shaped by the tools we use, in particular: the formalisms we use shape our thinking habits, for better or for worse, and that means that we have to be very careful in the choice of what we learn and teach, for unlearning is not really possible.
I come to writing the same way I come to teaching, which is that my goal is always to create life-long readers.
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