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.
Interpretation
Keep pursuing your passion regardless of immediate feedback, as success may come from persistence.
This quote by Octavia Spencer emphasizes the importance of perseverance and dedication in one's work. It suggests that not every effort will resonate with everyone, but continuing to move forward and staying true to oneself is crucial. The journey involves discovering what truly connects with others and not being discouraged by setbacks along the way.
In practice
In a motivational speech to students about pursuing their dreams.
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.
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.
If you go through life, and you don't find the beauty in an unexpected place, then you really have a sad existence.
I think when you compete every week, when you play under pressure daily, you find your rituals to be 100 percent focused on what you're doing.
When we succumb to believing that we are victims of our circumstances and yield to the plight of determinism, we lose hope, we lose drive, and we settle into resignation and stagnation.
Second place is meaningless. You can't always be first, but you have to believe that you should have been - that you were never beaten - that time just ran out on you.
Sports can do so much. It's given me confidence, self-esteem, discipline, and motivation.
Go ahead and do what you really love to do! Do nothing else! You have so little time. How can you think of wasting a moment doing something for a living you don't like to do? What kind of a living is that? That is not a living, that is a dying!
If you give up at the first rejection or the first bad review, you will never make it in publishing.
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