Kathy Bates won a much-deserved Emmy Award on Sunday for her work on American Horror Story: Coven, and even though the actress has been in the business for several decades, she says she still gets nervous when it’s time to get up on that big stage. That’s why, she says, she didn’t say what she really wanted to say in her acceptance speech.

Bates said her first thought was to pay tribute to Robin Williams, who died earlier this month after reportedly hanging himself at his home.

“I almost wanted to say, ‘Look, I own this time and this is for you,’ but I was just so…nervous,” she said.

Williams left behind many grieving fans, friends, and loved ones with his death on August 11 and was given a tribute at the awards show. Like most people who knew him, Bates has more than one story about his kindness, saying that he once checked on her at the Oscars after she lost in her category to Dame Judi Dench.

“He came to me and said, ‘I really wished I could have had your name in the envelope; are you OK? I know how hard it is to lose.’ He was so kind to me.”

Another fond memory of the comic actor? The time he gave her a quarter to call her mama after she won a Golden Globe for Misery.

“When I won my first major award for Misery — a Golden Globe — they didn’t have cell phones and I was waiting at a pay phone to call my mother afterward and I didn’t have a quarter. I turned around and asked, and Robin said, ‘Here’s a quarter to call your mother.’ I never forgot that kindness,” she said.