"In his top ten, Jean-Pierre Gorin tells you about John Ford’s praise of Jean Renoir. I’ll try to top his story: One day, Mizoguchi was asked who his favorite filmmaker was. “Ozu,” he answered without hesitation. And the journalist asked him why. “Because what he does is much more difficult than what I do.” (Needless to say that those six Mizoguchis in the Criterion Collection are priceless and were among Ozu’s favorite films.)"

"I adore that film also. I believe Noël Coward is a shared passion of ours. Since I was a very young man, I have always been in love with the various recordings of his nightclub performances, and among those twentieth-century performers who have died, he’s sort of my favorite. And you gave me that incredible collection of his letters, each one of which is more or less engraved on my heart."

"Many people in the West might not be aware of how much this collection means to younger women across the Middle East. Not only each particular story, and sub-story, but also the very storyteller behind, the great Shehrazad, is inspiring. The style is playful, the themes both universal and daring. Forget the sugar-coated Disney version; there is a core inside this world classic that was, and still is, quite forward-looking."