Transcript:
As Mel Brooks once said -- (laughter) -- to his writers on "Blazing Saddles," which is a great film: “Write anything you want, because we’ll never be heard from again. We will all be arrested for this movie.” (Laughter and applause.)

Now, to be fair, Mel also said, a little more eloquently, that, “Every human being has hundreds of separate people living inside his skin. And the talent of a writer is his ability to give them their separate names, identities, personalities and have them relate to other characters living within him.” And that, I think, is what the arts and the humanities do - they lift up our identities, and make us see ourselves in each other. And today’s honorees each possess a gift for this kind of creative empathy – a gift that allows us to exchange a sense of what’s most important and most profound in us, and to identify with our collective experience as Americans.

MILITARY AIDE: National Medal of Arts Recipients:

Mel Brooks. (Applause.) The 2015 National Medal of Arts to Mel Brooks for a lifetime of making the world laugh. As a writer, director, actor, and musician, he pioneered the art of musical comedy. And his hilarious, thought-provoking work on film and in theater have earned him the rare distinction of winning Oscar, Emmy, Tony, and Grammy awards. (Applause.)