"Carolyn Cassady was the wife of Neal Cassady who is the hero in Kerouac’s “On the Road.” She was his wife, but also an artist and art teacher, and she was linked to this absolute lunatic of a man who was her Achilles heel. He regularly betrayed her, but you love who you love. She had a love affair with Kerouac as well—weirdly because Neal Cassady suggested it. She was an incredibly gifted writer, but she was managing these crazy men in her life and bringing up her children and I guess she didn’t see herself in that way. But she wrote with so much intuition and insight, and a lot of beauty as well."

"A few months ago, I got a train to Glasgow to see my beloved Iris Dement. I got a sleeper train back the same night. It was the most fun I've ever had on my own. I’m surprised to be choosing something so late in her career, but this is extraordinary work. She has taken the words of Russian poet Anna Akhmatova and set them to music, partly in response to her adopting a Russian child. I find it redundant to reduce an artist to ‘a voice’ and Iris is so much more that, but the sound she makes provokes such an immediate physical effect in me. She makes me cry so often."

"I saw The Wild Bunch on a double bill with Mean Streets, midnight at the Waverly Place Cinema on Bleecker Street in New York [in the 1970s]. Those two played on a double bill; I was in New York, I had a studio and I was basically a practicing artist, working with various art groups — Art & Language, kind of conceptual arts, political arts. We were doing environments, we were doing installations, performance pieces…and I stumbled into this incredible double bill. And it was a life-changing experience. I thought they were just extraordinary. [Sam] Peckinpah for his muscularity, his immediacy, his sheer genius in his storytelling and characters. I was knocked out."

"I'm especially partial to this one because it has the song 'First Born', which is actually not about me specifically, it's about all first-born sons. But nonetheless, I identify it as my kind of jewel to wear – I share that position with Jesus and Moses, there are a few of us. And it's funny: we did the Christmas shows recently in London and Sophie Ellis-Bextor sang that song, and as I was doing back-up, I was once again reminded of how lucky I was to receive such attention, care and unabashed love from my mother. Without that song, and that album, I don't think I'd be who I am today as an artist."

"I love Zhang Yimou. I worked with him briefly when I was prepping a show for Legendary Films – I didn’t stay on that show, the timing didn’t work out, but I got to work several months with Zhang Yimou which was great. His use of colors, that’s what we used in John Wick. My cinematographer Dan Laustsen and I were very influenced by the artistic way he used color, because Zhang Yimou is also a photographer and amazing artist. It’s funny; when asked what my influences in action are, I usually choose them based not on the actual action choreography. It’s the vibe, the thematics of the action. Or how it’s shot and composed. That’s very important to me."

"Yes, he’s my son and, now, my writing partner. But this novel, penned by Jess well before we decided to collaborate, was a prize-winning international best seller and for good reason. Page-turning, suspenseful, beautifully written, deeply insightful, and rich in its portrayal of art world corruption and a long-forgotten, bizarre and particularly tormented artist. You will not be disappointed. And as long as I’m going to be accused of nepotism, check out the novels of my brilliant wife, Faye Kellerman. Her most recent, Walking Shadows, explores the ramifications of a decades-old murder and is, like all of Faye’s books, elegantly spare and spot-on when it comes to exploring the human condition."

"This is a visceral tale of an artist (Max von Sydow) whose mind begins to unravel as he’s plagued by insomnia and macabre visions of demons. His pregnant wife (Liv Ullman) is so concerned by this that she begins to stay awake with him night after night as he tries to process his grief. This is clearly a very personal work for Bergman, who admirably attempts to grasp and explore an existential issue for all artists. The pursuit of knowledge or truth or clarity or enlightenment—whether by means of artistic expression, religious belief, or science—has the capacity to rend an individual’s personality to shreds. As the saying goes, there’s a fine line between genius and madness."

"This is really a sneaky way to list all of Criterion’s editions of Wes Anderson’s films. Tenenbaums is by far my favorite, but Rushmore, The Life Aquatic, and the new edition of Bottle Rocket are all pretty fantastic, too. I’m always immediately won over by the artwork and illustrations that tie all his films together. Even with different artists (Ian Dingman and Eric Chase Anderson) there is a consistency, due in no small part to Wes Anderson’s own particular aesthetic, that makes these films feel like four stories from the same hyperreal, idyllically melancholy world. There’s an interview in the Tenenbaums supplements section with artist Miguel Calderon that’s totally worth a listen."