Author Sylvia Nasar and screenwriter Akiva Goldsman received the 14th annual Scripter Award on Saturday night. Nasar, who wrote the book "A Beautiful Mind," and Goldsman, who adapted it, were honored by Friends of the USC Libraries for the best film adaptation of a book or novella.

"It's wonderful to be finally honored for 'Batman & Robin,' " Goldsman joked in his acceptance speech. He then turned serious, recounting how he grew up surrounded by schizophrenia because his parents founded one of the first homes for emotionally disturbed children and how he learned a valuable lesson from these kids who were described as "being without reason."

"If you are running from the man in the coat rack, if you are brushing fire off your shoulder, or if you are gazing at a horse running in front of your third-story window -- nothing these kids were doing was without reason. We just didn't understand it," he said to the more than 300 guests gathered at USC's restored Doheny Memorial Library in Los Angeles.

Goldsman added that "A Beautiful Mind" was not a biography nor a clinical list of symptoms but rather a use of words and language to simulate the experience of the illness.

"If, when you're going home from the theater, one person looks at that man standing on that streetcorner screaming at empty air and sees him differently, then we have done our job," he said.

In accepting her award, Nasar commented how writers tend to hate movies inspired by their books.

"Some of my journalist friends were actually afraid to tell me how much they liked the movie," she said. "The fact is that I found Brian Grazer and Ron Howard's film to be tremendously moving. Yes, it's semi-fictional, but it's fiction of the most truthful kind."

Nasar compared Goldsman to math genius John Nash Jr., "Mind's" main character who developed his original idea by applying an insight from an apparently unrelated field to a new context to solve a problem. "It was pure genius on Akiva Goldsman's part to see that a device used in science fiction could be applied to a story about genius and madness to create a beautiful mystery about the human mind."

"Mind" actors Paul Bettany and Josh Lucas, along with actress Anne Archer, were on hand as presenters. Veteran funnyman Hal Kanter served as grand master of ceremonies, while Gavin MacLeod acted as emcee. Guests included Walt Disney Studios chairman Richard Cook, author Helen Fielding, "In the Bedroom" co-screenwriter Rob Festinger and actress Mary Stuart Masterson.