"It’s brilliant. It’s almost like a detective story: you try to work out why this person hasn’t spoken. The logic of it is so strange, you know — you sort of go, “Where does it start?” It’s something in a sense that could have existed without those bookends, without that kind of prologue to it, but it adds a strangeness to it, in its awareness of its form. They’re not the main things I enjoy about it — I like it, but I mainly like those two actresses, and how lean it is: straight in, the first scene is, “Miss Vogler, stop speaking… ” Everything’s so condensed. It’s clearly someone who’s made so many great films already — just a remarkable series of films. And it’s odd, because it’s very rare that I like someone with no humor to them, and he has no humor. I mean, Smiles of a Summer Night is not a hoot, you know? It’s odd that something can be so great without humor; it’s strange. Most great directors have a bit of humor in their films. Kubrick’s hilarious; Malick’s really funny…"

"[It] would have to be up there for sheer enthusiasm. I love it for a million reasons. It’s just such a celebration. But I think I also — god not to sound like too much of a shrink — I grew up in a family with lots of divorces and things. Growing up, the first couple I knew that were really, truly like Disney movie in love and devoted to each other was a gay couple. And then one of them died — of AIDS — and I remember I was so young; I was in junior high when it happened. It was still at a time when gay culture was so judged and so reviled in so many places. The movie was such a celebration of song and dance, but also of a gay lifestyle, and it was a beautiful thing to see at that point in my life. For there to be something out there in pop culture that was celebrating and not apologizing [for] all of that — I just thought it was brilliant."

"Why this one over Here Comes The Warm Jets? Well, the obvious thing would be to go with stuff like that. Everything Eno does is great, but I like this one because it's a poppy record. It's a bit of a progression from Here Come The Warm Jets, which is a bit tied to glam - it's a bit of a hangover from Roxy Music. Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) moves away from that a little bit, and it's just completely bonkers. I think his singing and his lyrics are brilliant. It's also where A Certain Ratio got their name from - and that made me think, 'Ah, A Certain Ratio, they must be alright'. It's just lovely. It's sinister glam rock; there's nothing terribly glamorous about it. It's more like glam rock in Korea or China - I just like the idea of him using little Communist party references in there. Glam rock was basically seedy anyway, there's no getting away from that, but this was putting it in an interesting context."

"I think it’s one of the funniest movies ever made. I think Charles Grodin is hugely underrated as a comedic actor. I think he’s brilliant. Jeannie Berlin who recently got a lot of attention again because of Kenneth Lonergan’s movie Margaret is amazing in this movie — she was actually nominated for an Oscar for it. Cybill Shepherd is great. I just love it, I love how what a s— the central character is, he’s really totally selfish and also really confused, in a great way. I also love that a lot of the comedy typically in movies like this, with sort of high concept plots, the comedy and the drama are driven by the central character lying to the people around them. But weirdly in The Heartbreak Kid, most of the drama comes from him telling the truth, he’s sort of excessively honest and straight forward, and it still manages to complicate these situations and cause a lot of tension and hurt feelings, but I just love Elaine May, I like all of her movies."

"It has to be a tie. Laurel and Hardy simply because they are two of the funniest people who have ever been on film. I’m leaping over the entire Marx brothers collection to say this, which I also love, but I recently went back and saw both of these films, and just the combination of really brilliant physical humor and absolute charm when these guys are just standing there, and they’re so good together. Nothing beats weirdness for the sake of weirdness, like the Marx brothers were prone to lapse into. But just to see the scene where they’re in a bar where they’re way out west, and a cowboy starts singing “Trail of a Lonesome Pine” and Stan and Ollie just join in and do a dance and harmonize and Stan gets hit in the head with a hammer, it’s sublime. Sons of the Desert for the same reason. I don’t think there’s ever been a comedy team as good at what they do as these guys."

"I was in the studio down in Phoenix doing the first Fight album and someone came down and told me that I had to check this out. They put it on and when I first heard 'Blind' I started asking myself what this album was going to do. It was an extraordinary time in the mid-90s, especially in America because heavy music was becoming really fast-paced. That's why I've also included Alice In Chains. Korn were from Bakersfield but a lot of stuff was filtering down from Seattle, whether it was Pearl Jam or Nirvana. When they came along they completely changed the direction that heavy music was heading. I thought it was great because we suddenly had something that was totally new. They're still pushing the boundaries and getting criticised for it, but really, fuck the critics. I'm still a fan. I was watching Korn the other day and they were absolutely amazing. The material from this record is still brilliant live, 20 years on."