Awards Quotes

“All you have to do [to win a Pulitzer Prize] is spend your life running from one awful place to another, write about every horrible thing you see. The civilized world reads about it, then forgets it, but pats you on the head for doing it and gives you a reward as appreciation for changing nothing.”
― David Baldacci, The Christmas Train

“(Golden Globe acceptance speech in the style of Jane Austen's letters):

"Four A.M. Having just returned from an evening at the Golden Spheres, which despite the inconveniences of heat, noise and overcrowding, was not without its pleasures. Thankfully, there were no dogs and no children. The gowns were middling. There was a good deal of shouting and behavior verging on the profligate, however, people were very free with their compliments and I made several new acquaintances. Miss Lindsay Doran, of Mirage, wherever that might be, who is largely responsible for my presence here, an enchanting companion about whom too much good cannot be said. Mr. Ang Lee, of foreign extraction, who most unexpectedly apppeared to understand me better than I undersand myself. Mr. James Schamus, a copiously erudite gentleman, and Miss Kate Winslet, beautiful in both countenance and spirit. Mr. Pat Doyle, a composer and a Scot, who displayed the kind of wild behavior one has lernt to expect from that race. Mr. Mark Canton, an energetic person with a ready smile who, as I understand it, owes me a vast deal of money. Miss Lisa Henson -- a lovely girl, and Mr. Gareth Wigan -- a lovely boy. I attempted to converse with Mr. Sydney Pollack, but his charms and wisdom are so generally pleasing that it proved impossible to get within ten feet of him. The room was full of interesting activitiy until eleven P.M. when it emptied rather suddenly. The lateness of the hour is due therefore not to the dance, but to the waiting, in a long line for horseless vehicles of unconscionable size. The modern world has clearly done nothing for transport.

P.S. Managed to avoid the hoyden Emily Tomkins who has purloined my creation and added things of her own. Nefarious creature."

"With gratitude and apologies to Miss Austen, thank you.”
― Emma Thompson, The Sense and Sensibility Screenplay and Diaries: Bringing Jane Austen's Novel to Film

“The book trade invented literary prizes to stimulate sales, not to reward merit.”
― Michael Moorcock

“Beware of those who are bitter, for they will never allow you to enjoy your fruit.”
― Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem

“Literary prizes have always sparked controversy. Their validity has always been questioned as the criteria to determine books merits are subjective.”
― Mouloud Benzadi

“How can 5 judges decide the best book of the year without reading every book of the year? While some lucky authors can enter the contest, others may never get the chance to do so due to the tough nomination and selection processes. And how can the judges’ decision be right when we know that submitting the same books to different panels will result in different winners?”
― Mouloud Benzadi

“How can the Book Award Judges’ decision be right when we know that submitting the same books to different panels will result in different winners!”
― Mouloud Benzadi

“Literary Awards offer no guarantee that the fame they create will last. Today, not many readers know the authors who won the Nobel prize in literature in the thirties, forties, fifties or even nineties. But, who doesn’t know William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Victor Hugo or Jean-Paul Sartre who stood the test of time without winning a prestigious prize?”
― Mouloud Benzadi

“I would not employ an author to referee a Ping-Pong match. By their very nature they are biased and bloody-minded. Better put a fox in a henhouse than to ask an author to judge his peers. (in a letter to the Governor General about the GA's Literary Awards & his issue--among others--with the judging system, 1981)”
― Jack McClelland, Imagining Canadian Literature: The Selected Letters

“New Rule: There's only one thing to say about the Christian Film and Television Commission giving me the Bigoted Bile Award and naming Religulous the number-one Most Unbearable Movie of 2008: Thank you! You hate me, you really hate me!”
― Bill Maher, The New New Rules: A Funny Look At How Everybody But Me Has Their Head Up Their Ass

“Archie Henderson has won no awards, written no books and never played any representative sport. He was an under-11 tournament-winning tennis player as a boy, but left the game when he discovered rugby where he was one of the worst flyhalves he can remember. This did not prevent him from having opinions on most things in sport.

His moment of glory came in 1970 when he predicted—correctly as it turned out—that Griquas would beat the Blue Bulls (then still the meekly named Noord-Transvaal) in the Currie Cup final. It is something for which he has never been forgiven by the powers-that-be at Loftus. Archie has played cricket in South Africa and India and gave the bowling term military medium a new and more pacifist interpretation. His greatest ambition was to score a century on Llandudno beach before the tide came in.”
― Archie Henderson

“THE MANY FACES OF SURVIVAL

Sunday, August 10th at 2:00 PST

Dachau Liberator, medical whistle-blower, award winning writer, college professor and world renowned garlic farmer, Chester Aaron, talks about the hard choices he’s had to make, why he made them, and how it’s changed his life.

Mr. Aaron was recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts, and received the Huntington Hartford Foundation fellowship which was chaired by Aldous Huxley and Tomas Mann. He also inspired Ralph Nader to expose the over-radiation of blacks in American hospitals.

Now Mr. Aaron is a world-renowned garlic farmer who spends his days writing about the liberation of Dachau. He is 86 years old and he has a thousand stories to tell. Although he has published over 17 books, he is still writing more and looks forward to publishing again soon.”
― Judy Gregerson

“I thought, for certain, that Billy would be the one to give the acceptance speech. But Daisy went up to the mike instead. I thought, I hope she says something coherent. And then she did.
“BILLY: She said, ‘Thank you to everybody who listened to this song and understood this song and sang it along with us. We made it for you. For all of you out there hung up on somebody or something.’
"CAMILA: ‘For everyone hung up on somebody or something.”
― Taylor Jenkins Reid, Daisy Jones & The Six

“A true winner is not someone who has won an award, but someone who has left an indelible mark on the world.”
― Mouloud Benzadi

“But nothing in human life is unmixed, and honors inevitably balance themselves with self-doubt. Everyone knows that medals are rubber”
― Donald Hall, Essays After Eighty

“Some people will always doubt whatever you'll accomplish.”
― Dax Bamania

“No Nobel Prize for me this year. Maybe next year?”
― Steven Magee

“Based on past awards of the Nobel Prize, my work on ‘Altitude Hypersensitivity’ appears to be worthy.”
― Steven Magee

“By the time Daisy Jones & The Six performed “Turn It Off” on Saturday Night Live, they were performing a song almost everyone in the country knew. It was the Record of the Year.”
― Taylor Jenkins Reid, Daisy Jones & The Six

“A true winner isn’t the one who wins an award, but the one who leaves an indelible mark on the world.”
― Mouloud Benzadi

“It is not the honor that you take with you, but the heritage you leave behind.”
― Branch Rickey

“Dear Chris Rock,
You're totally amazing how you handled yourself after you were assaulted on stage. Your family and millions of fans witness a true professional, in the very worst of situations handle himself like a real man. Like you, many of us are still at a loss for words, and very upset for you and your family. The myriad of emotions you’re going through will pass my man. Keep God in your heart, and a prayer in your mind.”
― Ron Baratono

“Someone asked me the other day, why haven't I won any awards! To which I say - how do you award the Everest! You may designate it as the tallest peak and all that, but how does that make any difference in the greatness of the Everest! Or how do you award the sun and the trees and the birds and the ocean? You simply cannot! You know why? Because the greatest forces of good are beyond recognition.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Find A Cause Outside Yourself: Sermon of Sustainability

“The things that hadn't happened, the honors not bestowed, had never bothered me earlier in my career, when time felt like a field without a visible horizon--but now that dark line had appeared in the distance and the story I had always told myself about my own limitless prospects was breaking down; not yet was starting to feel more like not ever.”
― Laura van den Berg, I Hold a Wolf by the Ears: Stories

“Guess there are no meritorious service awards for emotional availability.”
― Rebecca Yarros, Fourth Wing

“Quite often I lose count of my works,
Yet I've never had a fancy book launch.
I write in silence, I release in silence,
I have no relation to praise and applause.
I am the peak of humanitarian literature,
All without an ounce of support or award.
I am not a writer, I am world reformer,
My first concern is an integrated world.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Visvavatan: 100 Demilitarization Sonnets

“I am the peak of humanitarian literature,
All without an ounce of support or award.
I am not a writer, I am world reformer,
My first concern is an integrated world.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Visvavatan: 100 Demilitarization Sonnets

“As in the case in many countries around the world, critics and judges rely on political ideologies to evaluate the "best." - Jacqueline Loss (in the Intro to Cuba)”
― Alane Mason, Literature from the "Axis of Evil": Writing from Iran, Iraq, North Korea, and Other Enemy Nations

“On the table before them were wooden boxes, one for each pair of opponents, and piles of pebbles: white for the fly-bys, black for the challengers. At the end of the contest, each judge threw a pebble into the box. If the two competitors were equal, he could cast a tie vote by placing one pebble of each color in the box.”
― George R.R. Martin, Windhaven

“Peter Clarke, in Rescue Of A Lifeboat, recounted how an abandoned and overlooked lifeboat sunk in the middle of a busy harbour found new life.
It’s a charming story told in an engaging voice
which easily stood out for the quality of its writing.”
― Judges, Dorothy Wenger Award circa 2002