Memorable speeches from the Oscars

"Before the world tonight, I give praise to our ancestors who helped build this country [unintelligible] today, along with the genocide of its native people. We all connect with our ancestors. We will have love, wisdom regained, we will regain our humanity. It will be a powerful moment. The 2020 presidential election is around the corner. Let's all mobilize. Let's all be on the right side of history. Make the moral choice between love versus hate. Let's do the right thing!" - Best adapted screenplay winner Spike Lee, with Charlie Wachtel, David Robinowitz and Kevin Willmott, for Blackkklansman, 2019

"Marvel may have created the first black superhero, but through costume design we turned him into an African king. It's been my life's honor to create costumes." - Best costume design winner Ruth E. Carter for Black Panther, 2019

"Look around, ladies and gentlemen, because we all have stories to tell and projects we need financed. Don't talk to us about it at the parties tonight. Invite us into your office in a couple days--or you can come to ours, whichever suits you best--and we'll tell you all about them. I have two words to leave with you tonight, ladies and gentlemen: inclusion rider." - Best actress Frances McDormand for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

"I am an immigrant like Alfonso and Alejandro, my compadres. Like Gael. Like Salma. And like many, many of you. And in the last twenty-five years, I've been living in a country all of our own: part of it is here, part of it is in Europe, part of it is everywhere. Because I think that the greatest thing our art does and our industry does is to erase the lines in the sand. We should continue doing that when the world tells us to make them deeper." - Best director Guillermo del Toro for The Shape of Water, 2018

"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. So here's to August Wilson, who exhumed and exalted the ordinary people." - Best supporting actress Viola Davis for Fences, 2017

"Making The Revenant was about man's relationship to the natural world. A world that we collectively felt in 2015 as the hottest year in recorded history. Our production needed to move to the southern tip of this planet just to be able to find snow. Climate change is real, it is happening right now. It is the most urgent threat facing our entire species, and we need to work collectively together and stop procrastinating. We need to support leaders around the world who do not speak for the big polluters, but who speak for all of humanity, for the indigenous people of the world, for the billions and billions of underprivileged people out there who would be most affected by this. For our children's children, and for those people out there whose voices have been drowned out by the politics of greed. I thank you all for this amazing award tonight. Let us not take this planet for granted." - Best actor Leonardo DiCaprio for The Revenant, 2016

"When I look down at this golden statue, may it remind me and every little child that no matter where you're from, your dreams are valid." - Best supporting actress Lupita Nyong'o for 12 Years a Slave, 2014

"We made this film for all the journalists who have and continue to hold the powerful accountable, and for the survivors whose courage and will to overcome is really an inspiration. We have to make sure this never happens again." - Best original screenplay writers Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer for Spotlight, 2016

"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 color that now has a chance because this door tonight has been opened." - Best actress Halle Berry for Monster's Ball, 2002

"I know that my work in this case is magnified by the fact that the streets of heaven are too crowded with angels. We know their names. They number a thousand for each one of the red ribbons that we wear here tonight. They finally rest in the warm embrace of the gracious creator of us all. A healing embrace that cools their fevers, that clears their skin, and allows their eyes to see the simple, self-evident, common sense truth that is made manifest by the benevolent creator of us all and was written down on paper by wise men, tolerant men, in the city of Philadelphia 200 years ago." - Best actor Tom Hanks for Philadelphia, 1994

"I want to thank Brandon Teena for being such an inspiration to us all. His legacy lives on through our movie to remind us to always be ourselves, to follow our hearts, to not conform. I pray for the day when we not only accept our differences, but we actually celebrate our diversity." - Best actress Hilary Swank for Boys Don't Cry, 2000

"Two birds with one night... Forty years I been chasing Sidney (Poitier) they finally give it to me, what do they do? They give it to him the same night." - Best actor Denzel Washington for Training Day, 2002

"To every woman who gave birth, to every taxpayer and citizen of this nation, we have fought for everybody else's equal rights. It's our time to have wage equality once and for all and equal rights for women in the United States of America." - Best supporting actress Patricia Arquette for Boyhood, 2015

"When I was 16 years old, I tried to kill myself because I felt weird and I felt different and I felt like I did not belong. And now I'm standing here and, so, I would like for this moment to be for that kid out there who feels like she's weird or she's different or she doesn't fit in anywhere. Yes, you do. I promise you do. You do. 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." - Best adapted screenplay writer Graham Moore for The Imitation Game, 2015.

"To the audiences who went to see it, and perhaps those of us in the industry who are still foolishly clinging to the idea that female films with women at the center are niche experiences. They are not. Audiences want to see them and, in fact, they earn money. So... The world is round, people!" - Best actress Cate Blanchett for Blue Jasmine, 2014

Reuters / Sunday, February 22, 2015 "We wrote this song for a film that was based on events that were 50 years ago, but we say that Selma is now because the struggle for justice is right now. We know that the Voting Rights Act that they fought for 50 years ago is being compromised right now in this country today. We know that right now the struggle for freedom and justice is real. We live in the most incarcerated country in the world. There are more black men under correctional control today than were under slavery in 1850. When people are marching with our song, we want to tell you we are with you, we see you, we love you, and march on." - Best original song winners John Legend (R) and Common for the song Glory from the film Selma, 2015.

"When they called my name, I had this feeling I could hear half of America going, 'Oh no. Come on... Her, again?' You know. But, whatever." - Best actress Meryl Streep for The Iron Lady, 2012