Dustin Hoffman's Acceptance speech when he received the Lifetime Achievement Award on the Golden Globe Awards (January 1997): ================================================================ Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you very much. I have to tell you that I'm shocked. I didn't think I'd win tonight (laughs). My wife woke up this morning sick and we were in the kitchen and I said to my 9 year old daughter, Ali, "Go give your mother a kiss because she's sick and she has to go to the Golden Globe Awards with me." Ali said "Mommy, you can't go to the Golden GLobe's if you're sick." "Ali, I have to go. It's a big thing for him. I'm going even if I'm vomiting." Then Ali said "Well be sure to take a little purse to throw up in." That's a little bit the way we all feel tonight I think. (laughs) I hope you all brought a little purse. Thirty years ago yesterday I was invited to the Golden Globes who I very much not parenthetically thank for this award tonight. I was invited here 30 years ago for the first time to receive the "Best Newcomer Award" of 1967 and not it's tomorrow - 30 years later and I'm being honored for the lifetime achievement award. And if you ever get one of these you say to yourself "Are you sure this isn't the 'goodbye and good luck award.'" But I just want to thank my friend Tom for giving me this award and... (turning to Tom Cruise) I have no doubt that 30 years from now you'll be receiving your lifetime achievement award. I'll be 89. So I just want to tell you now how happy I am for you. (they hug) Better say it now. (laughing) I'll tell you this one little story because it's the only way i know to thank people for 30 years I've been working with them. When I made the Graduate they sent me out for a promo tour for the first time in my life. I'd go on radio shows and television shows and tell them who I am. I remember being in a hotel room in 1967 in San Franciso one night and I'm flipping the dials after doing all this promoting all day long. There's this little old jewish guy with a bald head sitting at a piano and he's being interviewed. And I suddenly realize I'm looking at Igor Stravinski the great Russian-American composer. The interviewer is saying to him... "So Mr. Stravinski, what is the greatest moment for you? Is it when you finally write the symphony? And he says..."No, No, No..." He sounds like a New York cab driver. "Is it when you've heard it played the first time by a symphony?" And he says...."No, no, no..." "What about opening night when they premier it and herald it as being one of the greatest works of the 20th century?" And he says...."No, no no..." "So what IS the greatest moment for you?" He was sitting at the piano with music on the thing there and he says: "I'm sitting here at the piano and for 3, 4 hours I'm trying to find a note. I can't find the note and I'm going 'bum, bum'....'bum, bum'....'bum, bum' for three hours. Finally after 3 hours I FIND the note. That's the moment. There is nothing like it. That's everything" So I started crying because I realized I had just done the Graduate with Mike Nichols who had helped and had the patience for Anne Bancroft and Katherine Ross and myself and everyone else and the NEED to find that note above all else. It was to find the note day to day. And then a year later I was to work with John Schlessinger on Midnight Cowboy and Waldo Salt and Jon Voight. And the same thing prevailed. We were looking for that note and we needed to find that note. Thirty years now I've been with hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people who need to find that note more than anything else and they share this evening here with me because that's what has made some of the many reach that note. This is a good room tonight. I haven't seen everything but I saw "Breaking the Waves" and I saw "Shine", I saw "Secrets and Lies" and I saw "Jerry McGuire." There are notes being hit tonight and it's an honor and a priviledge to share this evening with all of you. And thank you.