Read the full list of nominees here.
"This is my fifth nomination and I'm more proud of that than all the rest of it, I think. Getting nominated, to me, that's the plateau. After you're nominated, it's like a crap shoot, it's like throwing dice." - Morgan Freeman, best actor nominee for "Invictus."
"It was a phone call that interrupted a wonderful night's sleep
that I was having. It was the phone call. It was the phone call
that you always hear people saying, 'I was awoken by the ring of
the phone' and that's exactly what happened with me." - Sandra
Bullock on how she learned of her first Oscar nomination, for best actress for "The Blind Side."
"I'm going to D-I-S-N-E-Y-L-A-N-D!" - Jason Reitman on how he's celebrating his best director nomination for "Up in the Air." (He had to spell out Disneyland so as not to ruin the surprise for his
young daughter.)
"It's never old hat. It's too special. It's too special to ever become that. Actors are not greyhounds. They don't go into their work as if they're going into a race, thinking they're going to win - they're not running toward this prize." - Helen Mirren on her fourth Oscar nomination, for best actress for "The Last Station."
She won the best actress Oscar in 2007 for "The Queen."
"As soon as I heard, I jumped up and down and for some reason I kept screaming, 'I'm gonna get a car, I'm gonna get a car.' I don't know why." - Gabourey Sidibe, best actress nominee for "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' By Sapphire."
"I thought I was managing my expectations, but on hearing the news I discovered new and unfamiliar vocal tones. Perhaps I should do another musical." - Colin Firth, best actor nominee for "A Single Man "(whose other film credits do include a musical, "Mamma Mia!").
"I'm just going to carry on with my life and be thankful and that's it. My celebration days, which were huge, are now slightly modified, shall we say. At my exalted age I can't quite do the old 24-hour nightly shifts that I used to." - Christopher Plummer, age 80, on receiving his first Academy Award nomination, for best
supporting actor for his portrayal of Leo Tolstoy in "The Last Station."
"After 82 years, it's the first film nominated for best picture directed by an African American. Isn't that great? It's so exciting. How can you lose? You can't lose!" - Lee Daniels, best director Oscar nominee for "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' By Sapphire."
"I can't crack champagne because I've been cracking champagne throughout all these awards ceremonies and I'm on this psychotic diet, so I'll celebrate in the gym. It is an Oscar diet. I gotta fit ... in that tux." - Lee Daniels on his plans to celebrate becoming only the second black director nominated for an Academy Award.
"I certainly, if one can give the impression that the impossible is possible, then I am perhaps overwhelmed with joy. But I do think that I hope someday we can lose the modifier and that becomes a moot point whether the person is male or female and they're just filmmakers making statements that they believe in."
- Kathryn Bigelow on becoming only the fourth woman nominated for a best director award, for "The Hurt Locker."
"It was like a really good, friendly punch in the stomach. It's a good feeling, but it's like a jolt. You can be in as many top-five lists and have as many people say things to you on red carpets as you like, and it doesn't for a single second make you honestly think that you're going to get nominated." - Carey Mulligan, best actress nominee for "An Education."
"It's been a bit of a ride for this film. It started as a small-budget indie film and now it's standing shoulder to shoulder with Avatar. It's a victory for small films and I'm delighted. - Barry Ackroyd, best cinematography Oscar nominee for "The Hurt Locker."
"(I feel) like I'm 6 and I'm just getting in line for Disneyland or something. I never could have imagined feeling like this again, this sort pure exhilaration. I'm so honored in so many ways. It's a massive triumph for all of us." - Jeremy Renner, best actor nominee for "The Hurt Locker."
"Maybe with the nomination, people will have a chance to understand what a Palestinian living in Israel is. It will put us on the map." - Scandar Copti, one of the two directors of "Ajami," nominated for best foreign language film.
"My son is obsessed with the remote so he kept switching off the station and throwing the remote across the room, but we managed to scramble and turn it on right before my name came up. So it was
high-stakes drama but wonderful." - Vera Farmiga on how she learned she had been nominated for a best supporting actress Oscar for "Up in the Air."
"I'm so grateful to Marion Cotillard for doing such a beautiful job with that song. It's a very special honor to be singled out by the Academy and the world of film and my first foray into that world." - Tony winning Broadway composer Maury Yeston on his first Oscar nomination, for best original song, for Take It All, from "Nine."
"It's nice to be taken seriously." - Henry Selick, director of "Coraline," which was nominated for best animated feature film.
"That's pretty amazing. We treat these films just like movies, regular movies, whether they're animated or whatever, so to be treated like that is amazing, really cool." - Writer-director Pete Docter on his film "Up" becoming only the second animated feature nominated for a best picture Oscar.
"I think of all these actors, all of the directors who have been in this same place, all of those lovely people who have made me dream and want to do what I do today and, in many respects, brought meaning to my life. So what am I feeling? In short, immense gratitude." - Jacques Audiard, director and co-writer of "A Prophet Un Prophete," nominated for best foreign language film.
