Diane Warren Would Not Trade Her 12 Oscar Losses For One Win (Exclusive)

The legendary songwriter has been nominated an astounding 12 times for an Academy Award, but the pesky golden statuette continues to elude her.

Nevertheless, the 65-year-old insists she would not trade her dozen losses for a single win... and here's why:

"Look I love being in the game, I love being nominated," she said during a recent excursion in LA. "It's a giant honor, it really is."

"If I had to choose [between] winning once and never getting nominated again, or getting nominated 12 times? 12 times."

"There's longevity," she explained. "Like, one time could have been 20 years ago and no one cares, no one knows. I'm still in the game. I'm writing my best songs, I'm doing lots... I have this song, I have stuff for next year. You know, I love writing songs for movies. It's great."

As she points out, there are a lot of people nominated for Grammys every year (there are 86 categories this year, with between five and ten nominees in each -- you do the math), while the Academy Award for Best Original Song?

"They pick five songs a year," she said. "The Grammys pick lots of songs, there's a million song categories. "It's five in the Oscars. If I'm nominated, that's is such a huge win."

"There's only five, and the people nominating you are like, the best of the best of the best of the best."

Warren herself has been nominated 15 times for Grammy Awards, but has only managed to snag the one -- in 1996, for "Because You Loved Me" (performed by Celine Dion), the lead track from the film "Up Close And Personal".

Would she trade that for an Oscar?

"Oh f--- yeah," she laughed. "F--- yeah I would!"

Warren actually has two potential runners in next year's Oscar race: she wrote Reba McEntire's "Somehow You Do" for the film "Four Good Days", as well as Blanco Brown's "Never Gonna Tame You" for the documentary film "The Mustangs: America's Wild Horses".

Only time will tell if it will be lucky number 13 for Diane!

• 1987: "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" from "Mannequin" (performed by Starship)
  Lost to: "(I've Had) The Time of My Life" from "Dirty Dancing" (performed by Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes)

• 1996: "Because You Loved Me" from "Up Close and Personal" (Performed by Céline Dion)
  Lost to: "You Must Love Me" from "Evita" (performed by Madonna)

• 1997: "How Do I Live" from "Con Air" (performed by Trisha Yearwood)
  Lost to: "My Heart Will Go On" from "Titanic" (by Céline Dion)

• 1998: "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" from "Armageddon" (performed by Aerosmith)
  Lost to: "When You Believe" from "The Prince of Egypt" (performed by Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey)

• 1999: "Music of My Heart" from "Music of the Heart" (performed by Gloria Estefan and N Sync)
  Lost to: "You’ll Be in My Heart" from "Tarzan" (performed by Phil Collins)

• 2001: "There You'll Be" from "Pearl Harbor" (performed by Faith Hill)
  Lost to: "If I Didn't Have You" from "Monsters, Inc." (performed by Randy Newman)

• 2014: "Grateful" from "Beyond the Lights" (performed by Rita Ora)
  Lost to: "Glory" from "Selma" (performed by John Legend and Common)

• 2015: "Til It Happens to You" from "The Hunting Ground" (performed by Lady Gaga)
  Lost to: "Writing's on the Wall" from "Spectre" (performed by Sam Smith)

• 2017: "Stand Up for Something" from "Marshall" (performed by Andra Day and Common)
  Lost to: "Remember Me" from "Coco" (written by Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez)

• 2018: "I'll Fight" from "RBG" (performed by Jennifer Hudson)
  Lost to: "Shallow" from "A Star Is Born" (performed by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper)

• 2019: "I'm Standing With You" from "Breakthrough" (performed by Chrissy Metz)
  Lost to: ("I'm Gonna) Love Me Again" from "Rocketman" (performed by Elton John and Taron Egerton)

• 2020: "Lo sì (Seen)" from "The Life Ahead" (performed by Laura Pausini)
  Lost to: "Fight For You" from "Judas and the Black Messiah (performed by H.E.R.)