Amazingly, David Lynch only just won his first Oscar this year, receiving the honorary award at the Governors ceremony in October. Now, his longtime collaborator Laura Dern has revealed what the filmmaker said backstage after giving the most David Lynch speech possible.

In an interview with Vulture, the Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks: The Return actor was discussing how her relationship with Lynch has changed since they met 30 years ago. “I’ll tell you the best story,” she said. “The quintessential moment I’ve had with David in all of these years was (when) he was holding his Oscar and we walked back for a smoke.”

“As we went outside,” Dern continued, “I said, ‘How do you feel?’ and he goes, ‘Wow this is so pretty. But you know, we’re just lucky.’ Which people say, you know. And I was accepting it in the way I’ve heard other people say it. He goes, ‘I mean, they’re not our ideas. We’re just lucky if we catch them’. And I’m just like, ‘Yeah, well, that’s David Lynch’. They’re not our ideas. Things move through us. We didn’t make them up. I just think that’s really beautiful.”

Lynch was awarded his Oscar by Dern, as well as frequent Lynch collaborators Kyle MacLachlan and Isabella Rossellini. The director gave his speech in under a minute, thanking the Academy for the “honour” and congratulating the night’s other honoraries. Before leaving the stage, Lynch turned to his Oscar and said: “You have a very interesting face.”

Though he’s never scooped the esteemed prize, the filmmaker was previously nominated for his films The Elephant Man, Blue Velvet, and Mulholland Drive.