"This was the book that made my John Updike collection pretty much superfluous. In one big, sprawling, ambitious novel, DeLillo captures the soul of white America at its most optimistic, soaring and sad — an amazing achievement. You can read this and look at what the country is now and cry tears."

"This is from an amazing live album called Emergency Ward that I found in a record store not long ago. This George Harrison cover has such a powerful vocal performance from Nina with this big dynamic piano backing her up for about 11 minutes. There's something really meditative about it."

"I’m really drawn to that film because it was always riding that fine line between sanity and insanity, and how anybody can kind of go off into that insane world. And actually you don’t know. It was really striking to me, and also [Polanski’s] performance in that film is pretty amazing."

"It was a shock, a real shock. The acting was so sincere, so honest. Brilliant performances from everybody, from Robert DeNiro and Jodie Foster. There are always good moments in the movie business, but that was a very intense moment in the American cinema. It was amazing to see those movies."

"Fassbinder was an incredible filmmaker and made at least one of my all-time favorites. Brigitte Mira is so moving as the woman who is not doing what society says she is supposed to. The colors are amazing in this film as well. I also love the music by Peer Raben."

"Deciding which Akira Kurosawa film to choose for this list was extremely difficult, as he made so many tremendous films. Rashomon, Seven Samurai, and Yojimbo are all amazing, but I love this version of Macbeth. During the final scene, Kurosawa had trained archers fire real arrows at Toshiro Mifune. Brilliant."