Octavia Spencer Quotes

I grew up in a Jewish family, and we have raised our children in a Jewish tradition. Religion gives a framework for moral enquiry in young minds and points us to questions beyond the material.

The people I grew up around, almost all of them had been born and raised in the South. And, you know, they didn't always go to church, but they lived their lives as if God were watching everything they did.

I was raised Jewish. I didn't know anything about Christianity.

I did read Indian scriptures when we could get the English versions, but the problem was I never took the time to learn the language. Really, what it comes down to is that I knew the emotion of faith; I knew what my parents were trying to teach me, but we always said 'No' when my mom was trying to teach us Punjabi.

I grew up in southwestern Ontario in the heart of a Mennonite community. All my family are part of the Mennonite church.

To the extent that I come from a deeply religious tradition and have been contending with those beginnings all of my life - that constitutes the subject of much of my early fiction.

I was raised Jehovah's Witness. I was in Bible school at five or six years old, but I wouldn't say that we were a religious family.

Although I was raised Jewish, my upbringing didn't include any formal religious education or training.

I had to go to Sunday school once or twice in my life, and that's where I commented someplace on hearing.

I think you can't really escape any kind of spiritual education as a child, whether it's New Age or Judaism or Buddhism or whatever it is. You can't escape it, even if you completely disagree with it, you still have it as a foundation that you base things off of.

I come from a time when every kid dressed up. Everybody. If you didn't, you wouldn't be able to hang out. It was very tribal. There's nice things in that. It's culture; it's roots for me.

Christian attitudes are still important in a society even if they are no longer connected with belief.

I have never sat down and studied the Bible, never consciously echoed its language, and am, in reality, as ignorant of it as most brought-up Christians. All of the Bible that I use in my work is remembered from childhood and is the common property of all who were brought up in English-speaking communities.

Religion was a part of our home life when I was growing up. I attended Catholic school. It was a good education - for the spiritual end, as well as for its discipline.

I went to religious schools. I wasn't that enthusiastic, by and large, but it sunk in.

It really wasn't until I was 15 or 16 years old that I realized that the church was always there; it was always a part of what we were doing, even if it wasn't at the center of everything we did.

I came from a religious, homeschooled background; I had conventional views across the board.

I grew up in a small, rural community, where my extended family were mountain-folk type people, and some were very religious.

I'd had a strict religious education.

My mother was sort of mildly religious, but the rest of us, you know, we didn't really have it forced on us.

My beliefs and my faith are part of who I am, and I'm so grateful that I had the foundation laid early on. My mom took me to church from my earliest memories, so I'm grateful to have had that foundation laid early, and it's just part of who I am.

Politics is chiefly a function of culture, at the heart of culture is morality, and at the heart of morality is religion.

Many things about American life, that even secular people consider good, have flowed from the presence of a robust, resilient institutional Christianity.

I'm not religious. It's an issue, 'cause I've got two little kids, and I feel you can't grow up without knowledge of religion.

Spirituality and faith are at the core of who I am. I was born to deeply religious parents who were able to give me that rock solid foundation in the church and in my faith which really has served me so well.