"Edward G. Robinson and George Raft are inseparable friends who fall in love with Marlene Dietrich. A perfect script and wonderful performances. At night, the men repair electric wires and Marlene plays the hostess in dark bars. A brilliant love triangle."

"A brilliant Pulitzer Prize-winning book about how the modern world was formed, analyzing how societies developed differently on different continents. I like how this is written from a biologist’s point of view rather than purely based on history or anthropology."

"Great Australian author Stead wrote this brilliant novel about the Pollits family, and set it in the USA at the behest of her agent. Jonathon Franzen said it best when he said it “makes Revolutionary Road look like Everybody Loves Raymond. "

"Writer James Lord sat for a portrait by the brilliant, haunted and exacting artist Alberto Giacometti. It was supposed to last one day and ended up lasting eighteen. A fascinating study of the obsessive artist in the throes of his creation."

"And let me throw in an oddball here: Blow-Up. That is a brilliant film. It’s kind of a perfect enigmatic example of a film. I just love that movie. I can’t get enough of it. It’s so strange! [laughs]"

"Zelig, by Woody Allen, just because I think it’s one of the most ingenious pieces of faux filmmaking and yet it’s hilarious and it has a sort of brilliant sense of history and a touch of absurdity and madness to it."