Here is Degeneres’s speech in its entirety.

Wow. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. You never know where life takes you, huh? Before I say anything: Australia, I love you; my heart goes out to everyone who is suffering in Australia, all the animals that we’ve lost.

Kate, you’re incredible, and thank you so much. I know how hard, I hate being asked to do things like this, so thank you for doing this. Thank you for flying here, thank you for writing something, thank you for the amazing, the words that you said. Thank you so much, I love you. Thank you so much to the Hollywood Foreign Press, I feel humbled and honored to receive this. The first person after Carol Burnett is quite an honor, so thank you so much.

It’s a prestigious award, and what I like most about it is I knew coming in I would win. Because I mean, there’s nothing worse than sitting there, like most of you, waiting and wondering if you’re going to win, and politely acting like, oh, I’m going to listen to everyone’s speeches, like it’s nice, and it’s not. Those people just go on and on and on and on and on, and on and on and on and you’re like, aah. I’m not going to do that; I’m going to be quick. Although I don’t have to, because it’s a special award, and they don’t play me off. I mean, I don’t have to end at all, because it’s a special award. But they said they were going to give me a sign at 25 minutes, but that’s for my reference just to see where I was. But I could go on. I’m not. I’m going to keep it quick.

I was born in New Orleans in 1958, Jan. 26. Dr. Swanson delivered me at 8:43 in the morning. A rainy, rainy, and not — I mean, Louisiana heavy rain. My parents drove me home in a Buick. I think it was a Buick. It could have been a Ford or a Chrysler. It was a Buick. I think it was a Buick. The point is they brought me home in a car, and before I knew it I had a successful sitcom, and I came out, and then I lost that sitcom, and then I got another sitcom, and I lost that sitcom, too. And then I got to do something that I had never been able to do before, and that is make my own whiskey. And after that, I got a talk show and I was able to be myself. And that was 17 years ago. And I feel like you’ve all really gotten to know me over the past 17 years. I am an open book. And I couldn’t have done it without my husband, Mark. Mark, you are my rock. Thank you for supporting me through this crazy journey. I know it wasn’t easy for you, or the kids: Rupert and Fiona, go to bed, I love you. That’s funny, because they’re in college now.

But the point is you all know me, and obviously you know me or else you wouldn’t have laughed at all that. I feel like we all think we know someone; there’s a connection when we watch someone on TV for as long as they are on TV, and that’s what it was like for me with Carol Burnett. I felt like I knew her, I felt like she showed us who she was every week. She was larger than life. We counted on her to make us feel good, and she delivered. Every single week, she never let us down. She was hilarious in all the sketches that she did, and when she did the Q. and A. with the audience, she was just genuine and personal, and I always felt like she was speaking to me. At the end of the show, every time she pulled her ear, I knew she was saying, ‘It’s O.K. I’m gay, too.’ Television, it inspired and influenced everything that I am today. Lucille Ball, Mary Tyler Moore, Marlo Thomas, Dick van Dyke, Bob Newhart … there’s a little bit of all of them in me. That didn’t sound right, but you know what I’m saying.

All I ever want to do is make people feel good and laugh, and there is no greater feeling than when someone tells me that I’ve made their day better with my show, or that I’ve helped them get through a sickness or a hard time in their lives. But the real power of television for me is not that people watch my show, but that people watch my show and then they’re inspired to go out and do the same thing in their own lives: They make people laugh or be kind or help someone that is less fortunate than themselves. And that is the power of television and I’m so, so grateful to be a part of it. Thank you so much, everybody.