HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA--I must say that it felt really good to be back in person at the Oscars this year.

The 95th Annual Academy Awards were held at the Dolby Theatre on March 12 and the star-studded affair was televised on ABC. It was electric and exciting. It also seemed as if the scores of press and celebs were just happy to be together on the "Champagne Carpet" especially since the Pandemic changed the entire Awards Season landscape.

The Oscars were hosted by funnyman Jimmy Kimmel and he did a bang up job. Kimmel was really sensational. He took command of the show and kept it moving at a great pace. He was both funny and classy and delivered just what the Oscars needed. If they haven't already, they should book him to host next year too.

The Press room is always a fun place to be and where the winners are paraded through. Journalists get to ask them questions and the winners are just bouncing off the walls with delight like "Best Supporting Actor" winner Ke Huy Quan, ("Everything, Everywhere All at Once"). Like so many, I was moved by Quan's story and the exuberance he's shown really throughout the entire Awards Season. It all came to a fantastic finish with him capturing the grand Oscar statue.

Quan and "Best Actress" winner Michelle Yeoh ("Everything Everywhere All At Once") were an absolute delight to chat with and just so genuinely happy, humble and gracious. They were basking in the moment with appreciative fans even as they left the Dolby Theatre for the Vanity Fair party.

N2Entertainment.net was among the press backstage. Here are some of the most notable quotes from the winners of the 95th Annual Academy Awards.

RUTH CARTER--(Best Costume Design, "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever")

Jazz Tangcay/Variety-- What does your win mean tonight? (A.) Listen, I pulled myself up from my bootstraps. I started, you know, a single-parent household. I wanted to be a costume designer. I studied, I scraped, you know. I dealt with adversity in the industry that sometimes didn't look like me. And I endured. So, I feel that this win opens the door for other young costume designers that, you know, may not think that this industry is for them. And hopefully they will see me, and they will see my story, and they will think that they can win an Oscar too.

USA, BlackFilm.Com, Brigade Carter Doing a movie of this magnitude, how do you make the costume part of the movie instead of becoming the movie? (A.) Well, you know I love costumes, so that's really hard for me. But, you know, it's about storytelling. You don't want to distract. You don't want to, you want to support. And I enjoy supporting actors. I enjoy shepherding them to the set in a costume that they feel good in, that they can perform in. So I never wanted to overshadow the story or the performance. I'm here to support, and it's a collaborative medium.

Lou Booker/Up Your Geek-- I wanted to know about your process in designing the costumes for Queen Ramonda. Did you take any different steps in the second film when designing the costume?
(A.) Yes. The first film we were introduced to Queen Ramonda as the queen, as the support to T'Challa. In "Wakanda Forever," we're introduced to her as the ruler of Wakanda. So, we stepped up. We enhanced. Angela always wanted to play a queen. And so, to amplify her as the ruler of Wakanda, we added Vibranium, more Vibranium. We added an extra element to her Isicholo, the married woman's crown that she wears. We gave her the royal color of purple and adorned in gold as she enters the UN in this gown and it was incredible to elevate Queen Ramonda to this new status. And so, the process was to give her strength and show also the way that she embodied her place in Wakanda. As you can see in the film when she sits on the thrown, she's in a gray, one shoulder dress. And the one exposed shoulder shows her strength because, you know, Angela, she got those guns, right? So, we exposed her arms. We exposed her arms at the in the UN to show, you know, how beautiful women can be, how strong and vulnerable at the same time, but also can lead a nation.

BRENDAN FRASER ("Best Actor"--"The Whale")

Margaret Carero/KNX News What drew you to the role and how fulfilling this role is for you? (A.)Darren Aronofsky was going to make a film. Any actor is like a moth to the flame for that, and he told me that it was a story about a man who has been overeating and it's harming him, and he's very lonely, and he wants to reconcile with his child if he can. And that's about all I knew. And, of course, he showed me the script. I was intensely moved by it, much in the same way, I learned, that Darren was when he first saw the stage play in New York ten years earlier that Samuel Hunter had written. Darren was quite forthright that this would be a challenging part in just in terms of what it would take to create Charlie and his body and luckily, he had now, Oscar winner Adrien Morot to do my makeup. But it was my job to play Charlie from the inside out, and theirs to create him from the outside in. In company with Hong Chau and Sam Hunter, you know, I watched that kid win the game ball every day. I had a front row seat. Believe me. He's scary good.

Cameron Crews/Her Campus This past year has just been a huge comeback for you and, you know, the internet has been rooting for you. Everyone has been on your side. So, what has this past year meant to you, and what was the first thought in your head when you heard your name called? (A.) This has been incredibly rewarding and affirming, and it's given me a lesson in humility and gratitude. What did I hear when I first heard my name? I heard my name but I thought, "that can't be right." But it was, so I guess I should get up there and say something quick. I'm sorry. Now I know what the metaverse really looks like. And thank you to all my internet friends who've been so generous and I hope that I live up to this.

"TOP GUN: MAVERICK" ("Best Sound" Mark Weingarten, James H. Mather, Al Nelson, Chris Burdon and Mark Taylor)
Kitty O'Neal KFBK/Radio Sacramento. Many people credit "Top Gun: Maverick" with saving movie theaters and getting people back into a dark place to see a movie collectively. And of course, you did so well financially. So, you have all that under your belt. What is the Oscar on top of it mean? A lot of people were hoping maybe you would slip in with a little more. But you got it for sound, so tell us how you feel.

A. Al Nelson You know, we have to acknowledge our filmmakers who knew before COVID, before anything, when they were still working on the script, they knew that this had to be special. You may have heard at one point, Tom Cruise told me Joe Kosinski, this has to be a bullet hitting a bullet. It had to be perfect and it had to supersede what the original film did, which was already an amazing film. And so, the expectations were very elevated. And so, throughout the process, it was how can we make this better from story to production to sound? So, we all worked very, very hard to get it to the point to where it met the expectations that Tom Cruise had set for this film. And so, we're grateful that sound won an award. So many of the crafts, including the story, including the directing, including what Jerry Bruckheimer put together with Tom Cruise and Chris McQuarrie, deserve amazing credit for making theater cinema something that people wanted risk and invest in again. We're so thankful for that.

KE HUY QUAN: (Best Supporting Actor--"Everything Everywhere All At Once")

(Lots of Applause from Press). "Thank you. Thank you. Hold on. How do I lower this? You are the most beautiful looking group of people I have ever seen. Oh my gosh, wow. Can you believe I'm holding one of these? This is so surreal. Wow. So this is the famous room where all the winners come. Wow. High. Good evening. Please. Yeah. Q. Heather Berry/Entertainment Tonight. When you starred in "Goonies" and "Indiana Jones," you were credited as Jonathan Ke Quan. What does it mean to win an Oscar with your real name in it? (A.) When I started as a kid, I was you know, it was my birth name, Ke Huy Quan. And I remembered when it got really tough, my manager told me that maybe, you know, it would be easier if you were to have an American sounding name, and I was so desperate for a job that I would do anything. And it's insane that I at one point that I would, you know, try a different name, not the name that was given to me. But it can only show you how desperate I was to try to try to make things different. So when I decided to get back into acting, which was three years ago, the very first thing that I wanted to do was to go back to my birth given name, and to and tonight to see Ariana open that envelope and say "Ke Huy Quan," that was a really, really special moment for me. And then immediately. I was so emotional. But the first image that I had in my mind was my mom, was my mom, who is the reason why I am in America, who is the reason why I have a better life, I have all these opportunities. Like I said in my acceptance speech, she sacrificed so much. She had a great life where we came from, and she gave all that up so that all her children, there's nine of us there is nine of us, and every single one of them are so grateful to my parents. So, yeah. And that I hope you're proud of me.

Amanda Champagne/Coastal Weekly. If your younger self could be here now at the age of data and your younger Gooonie brothers were here, what would they say to you right now? (A.) Well, my younger self would not know all the struggles that I went through to be here, because he was just having the time of his life being a kid, being on a set with, you know, on a pirate ship going down a water slide. And, you know, right before this night started, Corey Feldman one of my Goonies brothers called. I was talking to Kerri Green and of course tonight, Jeff Cohen, who is my entertainment lawyer, is here tonight with me. He was he was in the audience. And that's why I wanted to thank him because I love all of them so much, and every single one of them is so happy. Sean reached out, Josh, Martha, and, you know, we are always bonded you know, we're family together. Goonies never say die.

Mary Medliah/CBC/RadioCanada: A lot of people think of you as a very positive person, relate to you in numerous ways. This is a very important moment in your career. How do you just stay humble and true to yourself through your whole career, through your life?
(A.) It's how I was brought up. It's how I was taught and, also, that's why I always say: Never forget where you came from because if you forget that, then all humility goes out the window. I remember how difficult it was for me, so that's why every time I walk on a movie set, I'm so grateful. This tonight was certainly wasn't, you know, I didn't. I didn't think this was possible. But yeah, I don't ever want to forget that, and I always want to I think it's important to appreciate where you are. And I'm just I'm just so grateful. I've said this maybe some of you have heard it. You know, I didn't think any of this would be possible. And I'm God, it has been so crazy. All of a sudden my mind is drifting back to the days when I lost my health insurance during the pandemic when I couldn't get a job. And you know, somebody asked me this earlier: Do I have anything planned? What am I doing next? I don't know what I'm doing next. All I know is, first thing tomorrow morning I'm going to call my agent because I remember when I was struggling. I would call my agent. I try not to bother him too much. But I would call him, you know, once every three months, once every six months, and I would say, "Hey, is there anything out there for me?" And the answer would always be the same: "Oh, I'm so sorry. There's nothing out there, but I'll continue to look." So hopefully when I call my agent tomorrow, he will give me a different answer! Thank you so much. Thank you so much. I love you all. I love you all. I love you, love you, love you, love you.

JAMIE LEE CURTIS (Best Supporting Actress,"Everything Everywhere All At Once")

Lauren Brown/BlackInAmerica.com. There are 65 women this year nominated for Academy awards across various disciplines. How does it feel for you to be amongst that number?
(A.) Jamie Lee Curtis: Surreal and proud, and obviously I would like to see a lot more women being nominated so there's gender parity in all the areas, in all the branches, and I think we're getting there. We're not anywhere near there. And of course, the inclusivity then that involves the bigger question, which is, do you how do you include everyone when there are binary choices, which is very difficult. And, as the mother of a trans daughter, I completely understand that and yet, to degender the category also I'm concerned will diminish the opportunities for more women, which is something I have also been working to try to promote. So it's a complicated question, but I think the most important thing is inclusivity and more women. Basically just F-------g more women anywhere, anytime, all at once. (Lots of laughter).

MICHELLE YEOH (Best Actress--"Everything Everywhere All at Once")

Q. So being a woman of color, in any space, but particularly in Hollywood, you can sometimes be made to feel like other and that may be you don't belong in a certain role or even in a certain room. So I want to know, have you ever felt like taking a step back from acting and because you stayed, what advice would you give to people who are afraid to take up space?
(A.) Michelle Yeoh You should never be afraid. If this is your passion, this is your love, you have to stand up for yourself and for what you believe in and for what you want to do. I think that is what it is. I'm still here today. Finally, after 40 years, I get this. It just goes to show, we will win the battle. And that's what we're doing. So don't give up. Never give up. Because when you give up, then it's a loss. It's a total loss, right? So, yes, don't let anybody put you in a box. Don't let anybody say, oh, you are past your prime, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. No, because we are proud. We believe in what we do. We love what we do. So, light that fire in your soul and stay on the path. Believe. Dare to dream. Because if you don't dream, it's impossible. Nothing is impossible. Look at me, I'm here.

GUILLERMO DEL TORO (Best Animated Feature Film,"Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio") Guillermo del Toro, Mark Gustafson, Gary Ungar, and Alex Bulkley, "Pinocchio."

Nancy Green/Film Critique: Congratulations on your win. And one of the things I wanted to say, Mr. del Toro, that your movies have broken the mold in terms of what genre movies can do and the possibilities. I wanted to know what do you think that this win will do for animated movies in the future?
(A.) Guillermo del Toro: I think that is not a single win. We are going to have to organize ourselves as a community. We have to have dialogue with the guilds, and we have to have an active dialogue with The Academy. This is an art form that has kept commercially and industrially at the kids' table for so long, and it really is a mature, expressive, beautiful, complex art form. So a win helps, but it is about going forward as a community, making it strong, making it known, and say what you, what we need because the promise of animation can be fulfilled by the artists that are in the community beautifully. And young animators are coming in all the time that want to do this, and they don't want to just conform themselves to the rules and product that is demanded of them.

Editor's Note: Information used in this article obtained from the Academy Press office. For more information on the Oscars, including a list of all the winners, log on to www.oscars.org.