20 Incredibly Inspiring Oscar Acceptance Speech Quotes
Updated: Sep. 28, 2018The big awards can be almost as entertaining as the movies they celebrate. Read these gems from favourite acceptance speeches throughout the years.
The Most Inspiring Quotes from the Oscars
1. “I’m just a girl from a trailer park who had a dream. I never thought this would ever happen.” —Hilary Swank, Best Actress, Million Dollar Baby (Here are 17 things you didn’t know about the Oscars!)
2. “No matter how far out your dreams are, it’s possible. Fair play to those who dare to dream and don’t give up.” —Marketa Irglova, Best Original Song, Once
3. “God bless that potential that we all have for making anything possible if we think we deserve it. I deserve this.” —Shirley MacLaine, Best Actress, Terms of Endearment
4. “I am king of the world!” —James Cameron, Best Director, Titanic (Take a look at the most memorable snubs in Oscar history.)
5. “It has been a long journey to this moment.” —Sidney Poitier, Best Actor, The Defiant Ones
6. “I call upon you to draw from the depths of your being to prove that we are a human race. To prove that our love outweighs our need to hate. That our compassion is more compelling than our need to blame. That our sensitivity to those in need is stronger than our greed.” —Elizabeth Taylor, Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award
7. “This is such an honour. But the thing that counts the most with me is the friendships, and the love, and the sheer joy we have shared making movies together.”—Meryl Streep, Best Actress, The Iron Lady
8. “When you are in the ocean you must swim.”—Pedro Almodovar, Best Foreign Film, All About My Mother
9. “I want to thank anyone who spends part of their day creating. I don’t care if it’s a book, a film, a painting, a dance, a piece of theatre, a piece of music. Anybody who spends part of their day sharing their experience with us. I think the world would be unlivable without art.”—Steven Soderbergh, Best Director, Traffic
10. “…never once in my life did my parents ever say, ‘What you’re doing is a waste of time.’ Never. And I grew up, I had teachers, I had colleagues, I had people that I worked with all through my life who always told me what you’re doing is not a waste of time… I know there are kids out there that don’t have that support system, so if you’re out there and you’re listening, listen to me: If you want to be creative, get out there and do it; it’s not a waste of time. Do it. OK?” —Michael Giacchino, Best Original Music Score, Up
11. “You can’t hold grudges. It’s hard but you can’t hold grudges. And it doesn’t matter how you get knocked down in life because that’s going to happen. All that matters is you gotta get up.” —Ben Affleck, Best Picture, Argo
12. “When I’m being true to myself, I can avail myself to extraordinary things such as this. You have to allow for the impossible to be possible.” —Lupita Nyong’o, Best Supporting Actress, 12 Years a Slave
13. “You just do the best you can.” —Clint Eastwood, Best Director, Million Dollar Baby
14. “Stay weird. Stay different. And then when it’s your turn and you are standing on this stage, please pass the same message to the next person who comes along. Thank you so much.” —Graham Moore, Best Adapted Screenplay, The Imitation Game
15. “I won and I get to scream and jump a little. But I got to go back to work tomorrow.” —Benicio del Toro, Best Supporting Actor, Traffic
16. “Can I have my champagne now?” —Cate Blanchett, Best Actress in a Supporting Role, The Aviator
17. “You know, there’s one place that all the people with the greatest potential are gathered. One place. And that’s the graveyard. People ask me all the time, ‘What kind of stories do you want to tell, Viola?’ And I say, exhume those bodies. Exhume those stories. The stories of the people who dreamed big and never saw those dreams to fruition. People who fell in love and lost. I became an artist, and thank god I did, because we are the only profession that celebrates what it means to live a life.” —Viola Davis, Best Supporting Actress, Fences
18. “There’s a few things, about three things to my count that I need each day. One I need something to look up to, another something to look forward to, and another is someone to chase.” —Matthew McConaughey, Best Actor, Dallas Buyers Club
19. “And I am standing here because the woman I share my life with has taught me and demonstrates for me every day just what love is.” —Tom Hanks, Best Actor, Forrest Gump
20. “This moment is so much bigger than me. This moment is for Dorothy Dandridge, Lena Horne, Diahann Carroll. It’s for the women that stand beside me: Jada Pinkett, Angela Bassett, Vivica Fox. And it’s for every nameless, faceless woman of colour that now has a chance because this door tonight has been opened.” —Halle Berry, Best Actress, Monster’s Ball
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