Golden Globes 2023: Steven Spielberg wins Best Director - Motion Picture for 'The Fabelmans' - Los Angeles News

Accepting the award for his autobiographical drama, Spielberg said, "I've been hiding from this story since I was 17 years old. I put a lot of things in my way of this story," reports 'Variety'.

He continued, "I told this story in parts and parcels all through my career. 'E.T.' Has a lot to do with this story. 'Close Encounters' has a lot to do with this story. But I never had the courage to hit this story head-on until ('Fabelmans' co-writer) Tony Kushner (and I) were working on 'Munich' a long time ago, (and he) started telling me about all these stories about (his) life. And we started a conversation."

He further mentioned, quoted by 'Variety', "The conversation lasted all through 'Munich,' all through 'Lincoln' and 'West Side Story'. And my wife Kate was always saying, 'You have to tell this'. And during COVID, I didn't know if any of us were going to have the chance to tell any of our stories again in March, April, May of 2020".

Spielberg added, "Everything I've done up to this point has made me ready to finally be honest about the fact that it's not easy to be a kid. The fact that everybody sees me as a success story... But nobody really knows who we are until we're courageous enough to tell everyone who we are. And I spent a lot of time trying to figure out when I could tell that story and I figured it out when I turned 74 years old. I said, 'You better do it now'. And I'm really, really happy I did."