Lin-Manuel Miranda is nominated for his first-ever Oscar this year for “How Far I’ll Go” from Moana. Most people believe that one of the songs from La La Land will probably take home Best Song, although the biggest hope I have is simply that Justin Timberlake does NOT win. But I will be ecstatic if Lin-Manuel wins an Oscar. That will mean his EGOT is complete, and it will mean the world to him. He’s been geeking out ever since the Oscar nominations came out, and he’s totally going to geek out at the actual Oscars. He’s so dorky-enthusiastic (in a cool way) about the Oscars that The Hollywood Reporter gave him a guest column wherein he basically reminisces about all of his favorite Oscar moments. You can read the full piece here. Some highlights:

His favorite Oscar moments: Tom Hanks’ beautiful acceptance speech when he won best actor for Philadelphia in 1994. Roberto Benigni climbing over chairs and wanting to make love to everybody in the world when Life Is Beautiful won best foreign-language film in 1999. Kim Basinger presenting in 1990 and telling the audience that one of the best films of the year, Do the Right Thing, was not nominated. For her to take a stand, 25 years before #OscarsSoWhite, was incredible — and impressive because time has shown the prescience of that film.

The Oscars should be political this year: I expect we’ll see more of that this year. It’s a political time, so I imagine the Oscars will look exactly like your Twitter or Facebook feed. Why should we ignore for three hours what we’re talking about 24 hours a day?

A little bit of shade for Seth MacFarlane: Hosting the Oscars is not a thing I would ever want to do. I am a huge Seth MacFarlane fan, but you could tell how uncomfortable everyone in the room was with his “We Saw Your Boobs” number. You always have to do this dance as a host: You’re playing to a billion people at home, and you’re playing to anxious contestants in a room, and that’s an insanely hard thing to divide. It’s the most thankless task in the world. I have a pretty healthy ego, but it does not extend in that direction. I’d much rather be the guy writing the opening tune than having to deliver it.

Favorite Oscar hosts: [Billy] Crystal was great. I love Steve Martin, too. He brings his own thing and is incredibly funny. And Whoopi Goldberg. Those are probably my top three.

The importance of Whoopi: Another Oscar moment that really stuck with me was when Whoopi won her best supporting actress for Ghost. I’ll never forget, at the top of her acceptance speech she said, “Ever since I was a little kid, I wanted this,” which is so rare. Then she said, “As a little kid, I lived in the projects, and you’re the people I watched. You’re the people who made me want to be an actor.” For me, it was like she was saying, “If you want this, you can get it, too. I’m proof that you can.” I had been seeing myself in this world since I was old enough to do anything, and it was as if she reached through the screen to talk to me. I was that kid. Even my mother used to say, “Remember what Whoopi said.”

He doesn’t pretend to be above it all: What the Oscars mean to me has evolved over the years. When I was a little kid, it was the summit of success in this industry that I was looking at with giant glass eyes wanting to be a part of. And then you grow up, and it changes. I’m a big entertainment news reader. I read my Hollywood Reporters and my Entertainment Weeklys, and I’ve come to learn how much more of a crapshoot it all is.

The Oscars matter: I can’t tell you what it feels like in that room because this will be my first time at the Oscars, but I can tell you why the Oscars matter. It’s a night when the arts and artists are formally honored, and this recognition is seen by millions of people across the country and around the world. The show inspires people to keep pursuing their craft, or to seek out the nominated films or the overall body of work of the nominees, and through that exposure, people gain a greater appreciation of what the art of filmmaking brings to our culture.

[From THR]

Lin and I are close in age, and I feel like we probably have similar Oscar-touchstone moments. I agree with him that when we were younger, the Oscars definitely had a “larger than life” mystique that they don’t really have now. Maybe that’s me, maybe that’s my age, maybe it’s because I’m watching the Oscars as part of my job now, I don’t really know. But I remember in the 1990s especially, everything seemed so much bigger and so much more exciting. We still get glimpses of that, here and there, but there have been some absolutely miserable Oscar telecasts in the past seven or eight years. I’m glad Lin is still a believer though, because he’s right – somewhere, there’s a little kid watching the Oscars and that kid will be so excited to see Riz Ahmed presenting or Lin Manuel singing or Viola Davis accepting an Oscar. That will matter.

Photos courtesy of WENN, THR.