Academy Awards Acceptance Speech Database

HERBIE HANCOCK:
I even get to hold this [his Oscar]. They asked me to have a speech prepared. And this is the first time I've actually prepared a speech. I never did this before. Maybe I have to prepare speeches in the future. [Laughs.]

In accepting this award I salute the same unsung heroes that you so boldly have chosen to applaud. Some are with us today and some are not. Many have suffered and even died for this music, this greatest of all expression of the creative spirit of humankind—jazz. From their suffering and pain we can learn that life is the subject, the story that music so eloquently speaks of, and it is not the other way around. We as individuals must develop our lives to the fullest, to strengthen and deepen the story that others can be inspired by life's song.

I thank Bertrand Tavernier, Irwin Winkler, Francis Paudras, Dexter Gordon, Bruce Lundvall, William Flageollet and the cast and crew for their sincere efforts through love and respect for this American-born art form called jazz. Praise has been long overdue for Bud Powell, Lester Young, Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday and many, many others. Along with you, I thank them. Along with them, I thank you.