Ben Affleck throughout award season

Grant Heslov,George Clooney,Ben Affleck & Jack Nicholson at the 85th Academy Awards

“I was here 15 years ago or something, and I had no idea what I was doing. I was sitting out here in front of you all, really just a kid, and I went out and I never thought that I would be back here, and I am because of so many of you who are here tonight, because of this academy, because of so many wonderful people who extended themselves to me when they had nothing to benefit from it…I want to thank them and I want to thank what they taught me which is that you have to work harder than you think you possibly can, 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, cause that’s gonna happen, all that matters is that you gotta get back up.”