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.
I am deeply interested in the progress and elevation of journalism, having spent my life in that profession, regarding it as a noble profession and one of unequaled importance for its influence upon the minds and morals of the people
Is sloppiness in speech caused by ignorance or apathy? I don't know and I don't care.
Time passes slowly. Nobody says a word, everyone lost in quiet reading. One person sits at a desk jotting down notes, but the rest are sitting there silently, not moving, totally absorbed. Just like me.
It is much better to learn the elements of geology, of botany, or ornithology and astronomy by word of mouth from a companion than dully from a book.
Mathematics is being lazy. Mathematics is letting the principles do the work for you so that you do not have to do the work for yourself
When someone is taught the joy of learning, it becomes a life-long process that never stops, a process that creates a logical individual. That is the challenge and joy of teaching.
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