5 Inspiring Quotes From Oscar Winners...

By Ivy Kuo, Legends Report Writer

I’ve always seen the Academy Awards ceremony as how it’s portrayed by the media: an award show full of superficial glitz and glamour, with Hollywood stars strutting down the red carpet in million-dollar designer outfits, pitted against one another in a televised competition of talent and skill.

However, this was the first year that I focused on what actually mattered: the tearful, moving acceptance speeches of actors, actresses, directors, producers, and crew members. It is their effusive words of gratitude towards their loved ones that humanises these seemingly untouchable celebrities; and I realised that they, too, have walked paths not so different from you and I.

I have chosen my favourite inspirational quotes from the Oscar winners this year. While most of these quotes weren’t from the awards show, I hope that their tales of honesty, courage, and diligence inspires you, too.

“I think the number one thing that I find important is the importance of honesty with your friends and your parents, if you can be. But I think that telling people how you really feel, being who you truly are, being safe and taking care of yourself is the most important thing.” 

- Emma Stone, Best Actress

"There’s one place that all the people with the greatest potential are gathered – 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 dream 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 is to live a life. Here’s to August Wilson, who exhumed, and exalted, the ordinary people." 

- Viola Davis’s acceptance speech as Best Supporting Actress

“Your life, your circumstances change, and you have to continue to grow as a person, and once you have means and opportunity, you have to make different choices to protect what you have." 

- Mahershala Ali, Best Supporting Actor

“All cultures are different. Some commit genocide. Some are uniquely peaceful. Some frequent bath-houses in groups. Some don't show each other the soles of their shoes or like pictures taken of them. Some have enormous hunting festivals or annual stretches when nobody speaks. Some don't use electricity.” 

- Casey Affleck, Best Actor

“The way I grew up, I was kind of a quiet kid. I ended up watching people a lot, more than interacting, in a certain way. And I think you can learn a lot more about people when they’re not speaking than you can when they’re speaking. People say, 'Oh, you can learn more by actions than statements.' But I do think that when people are in repose, you really see beneath the surface.” 

- Barry Jenkins, Director of Best Picture, Moonlight

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