"I love this album! This is truly the epitome of that time in my life as a young artist dying to become known in the music world. This album really gave me tremendous inspiration! It is heartfelt, innovative...where soul meets hip-hop in the most organic way. Lauryn Hill is incredible and this album holds a beautiful place in my conscious."

"I had the great honor of being at a screening of the restored print in Los Angeles some years ago. I think this is Bertolucci’s masterpiece, though one could argue he made several of them. Ravishingly beautiful visuals, terrific performances, and among the most liquid and complex camerawork ever. A study of fascism, based on the book by Alberto Moravia."

"I just finished Moby-Dick, which scared me off for a long time due to the hype of its difficulty. I found it to be a beautiful boy’s adventure story and not that difficult to read. Warning: You will learn more about whales than you have ever wished to know. On the other hand, I never wanted it to end."

"I’ve been listening to The Incredible String Band, but that’s about it. The other night I sang with Mr Heron [Mike Heron, co-songwriter and co-frontman along with Robin Williamson] and Robyn Hitchcock, you see, we sang ‘A Very Cellular Song’ [13-minute epic from ‘The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter’] and it was fantastic, so that nudged me into listening to that album]"

"The most horrible creations of the 20th century are fascism and Nazism, and the most beautiful one is cinema. There isn’t a film that better displays the fascination of fascism. How can the human brain be disturbed to the point of getting that enthralled by violence? The junction of the best and the worst of the 20th century – between History and Cinema."

"The most beautiful melodrama ever made. I can’t help crying when I think about the last scene, on the Island of Sado: in the beach, near a poor shack, the sublime Kinuyo Tanaka, now old and blind, finally reunites with her long-lost son, Zushio. And life goes on; the seaweed picker continues to turn the weeds that dry in the sun."

"There’s a reason this is one of Ingmar Bergman’s most cited works: it’s one of his best. A beautiful and unusually brisk road movie, this may be Bergman’s most accessible film, but what’s wrong with that? This is the kind of film artists spend their entire careers striving for. Bergman achieved it early on, and made many more classics as a result."

"This is such a beautiful, sad movie. A film about the fifties infused with the disappointment of the seventies that, when watched now, simply seems to be about the disappointment inherent in all of our lives. Like all incredible films, it seems to burn itself into your mind like memories of your own life. Jeff Bridges is also really hot in it."

"I jokingly call myself a ‘Borg-again Christian.’ Born into the Episcopalian church and raised Catholic, I bolted from organized religion when it got too hard to find God — when politics and certainty replaced mystery and faith. Years later, this book brought me back. It’s a beautiful reminder of what’s possible when the church commits itself to love and justice above all."