"I just think the premise of holding up in a mall… being that prescient about the kind of gated communities, and consumerism, and mixing that with zombies in 1978 is just beyond genius. If you look at, like, John Waters doing Female Trouble in 1974, saying things about crime and beauty and the rise of paparazzi, you know, this kind of crazy Kardashian, TMZ, beauty industry — I mean, as psychotic as that film is, it’s so ahead of the curve. It’s so amazingly looking into the future. So I think those kinds of themes I responded to. And Goblin did the original soundtrack."

"Same with my friend George Miller’s Road Warrior. When I first saw that in Westwood, I was like, “OooooK, there is a whole world beyond Hollywood that is sort of significant in this movie, that has a set of rules about gasoline as the ultimate currency that is both metaphorical and so out-of-the-box.” And the vehicles, the way George did it, the stunning performance of young Mel Gibson. I can remember the visceral impact that it had on me and I’m really looking forward to Fury Road now. I’m sure it’s going to be amazing."

"Everything feels impossible until it happens. The #MeToo movement was revolutionary because it made real, in a sudden and irreversible way, a world that previously lived only in the minds of the most radical. In Believe Me, a roster of the most perceptive and fearless writers working today look at #MeToo and beyond: what could this world look like if we believed women the first time, if we didn’t punish women for speaking the truth, if we centered women in their own stories, if we allowed ourselves to imagine radical models of care and justice and then acted to make them real?"

"While most people tout “The Color Purple,” and rightly so, I love, beyond measure, “Possessing the Secret of Joy,” which is a not quite sequel to “The Color Purple” about Tashi, the wife of Celie’s son Adam, and how something that happens to her body at a very young age shapes the rest of her life. This is the novel that taught me how to write fiction with political ambitions. It is searing and wondrous and painful and every time I read it, the ending wrecks me. And still, I go back for more. That’s how important this novel is."

"While most people tout “The Color Purple,” and rightly so, I love, beyond measure, “Possessing the Secret of Joy,” which is a not quite sequel to “The Color Purple” about Tashi, the wife of Celie's son Adam, and how something that happens to her body at a very young age shapes the rest of her life. This is the novel that taught me how to write fiction with political ambitions. It is searing and wondrous and painful and every time I read it, the ending wrecks me. And still, I go back for more. That's how important this novel is."

"I could never write the way Colette did. I’ve never found anything to match her descriptive passages, ever. She was a very sensual writer, and way beyond her time. Chéri is a love story between a very spoiled young man and his mistress who has “been there, done that.” He’s self-centered and vicious, and she ultimately turns out to be very noble. The final scene is incredibly moving; it makes me cry. I absolutely bow to Colette, but I think if she could hear me, she would probably tell me where to get lost, because she was that kind of woman."