“I wrote a long movie and I'm going to make a long speech,” quipped John Briley, who won the Original Screenplay for “Gandhi” (1981). And he did.

One of the shortest speeches in the Oscar's annals is probably that of Joe Pesci, Supporting Actor in Scorsese's “GoodFellas, who simply said, “It's my privilege. Thank you.”

The all-time record of Oscar speeches, over 5 minutes, still belongs to the British thespian Greer Garson, Best Actress for “Mrs. Miniver” (1942), who thanked everyone, from the Academy voters to “the doctor who brought me into the world.”

Oscar can do strange things to the contenders, as Lili Zanuck, producer of Driving Miss Daisy, said: “I hope I'm as religious the rest of the year as I've been the last two months.”

Maureen Stapleton, Supporting Actress Oscar winner for “Reds” (1981), by Warren Beatty, said: “I woould like to thank everybody I ever met in my entire life.”