"It’s fashionable to read ‘Naked Lunch,’ proclaim Burroughs as a genius, sometimes dip into ‘Junky,’ and forget the rest. The truth is that Burroughs’ best novels were the ones he wrote in the later years of his life, like ‘The Western Lands,’ and this beautiful work."

"“Rhapsody in Blue” is the first song I ever heard. When I was a little boy, very young, I heard it and said, “Mom, Mom, play it again!” I loved the part where the violins came in. I just got this overwhelmingly beautiful vibe from the music. "

"This punk of a monk, who should be tending to his own affairs, has decided to infect the real world with his tall tales, and worse, to let the cat out of the bag. And what a sly, dangerous, beautiful, foul-smelling, heart-warming beast it is."

"I read a few pages from this Mary Oliver selected compendium of poems spanning more than five decades every single day — often in the morning. It’s what I imagine a bird feels when they hop into a really beautiful birdbath with really clean water in it."

"If I had to describe this film in three words, I would say: “Charm, charm, charm.” The beautiful Stefania Sandrelli is seduced by her sister’s fiancé, who then refuses to marry her because she’s no longer a virgin. The moral logic of the Italian family is hilarious."

"The power of this film is in the way it sustains the sense of mystery throughout. A young girl disappears, and we never really learn how or why. Cinematographer Russell Boyd helps create the ominous mood with photography that is beautiful and threatening at the same time."

"This is definitely the most interesting take on the vampire genre I’ve ever seen. It’s such a beautiful film and has so many amazing images in it. Definitely my favorite thing Guillermo del Toro has done so far. Nice and disturbing, just the way I like it."

"Imagery so lush and intense, matched with the most beautiful Morricone score, make this Malick film—found and made in the editing room—a breathtaking ninety-four-minute montage of early twentieth-century rural life that remains unsurpassed as an example of a searching New Hollywood mastery."

"We younger Negro artists who create now intend to express our individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame,’ Hughes wrote nearly 100 years ago. ‘We know we are beautiful. And ugly too.’ We are all imperfectly human, and these imperfections are also markers of human equality"