"That was in 1994. That was right around the time I was finishing college and moving to California, in that period of my life, and I was secretly interested in the entertainment business but didn’t tell anybody. There was something about the writing and the music and John Travolta’s resurgence. Sam Jackson was just a badass motherf—er. I love Tarantino’s writing."

"These are both movies I made out to in college and later felt had been inappropriate choices for setting a romantic mood. I will never forget watching one of two Jeremy Ironses finger his satanic gynecological equipment while a guy named Phil sort of touched my boob. Straw Dogs makes you feel really awkward about removing your leggings, so you just don’t."

"These are both movies I made out to in college and later felt had been inappropriate choices for setting a romantic mood. I will never forget watching one of two Jeremy Ironses finger his satanic gynecological equipment while a guy named Phil sort of touched my boob. Straw Dogs makes you feel really awkward about removing your leggings, so you just don’t."

"I first read Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights (written by Charlotte’s sister Emily Bronte) when I was in college in California in the late 1960s. They are two of my favourite books because they’re just so brilliantly written. The beauty of both these classics is that they were fantastic when I was a teenager and they still appeal to me now as a 63-year-old woman."

"A professor at Northwestern University had this book on our list of required reading for an Industrial Engineering class I took my junior year of college. It was a seemingly odd choice, but at the end of the day, the takeaway was a self-empowerment and motivational bent that I apply to decision making in my life to this very day. It’s an invaluable quick read."

"She Got Up off the Couch” is the follow-up story to “A Girl Named Zippy,” describing how Kimmel’s mother literally got up off the couch, enrolled herself in college, and made a better life for herself after her husband left. Proof that you’re never too old to start over, and how important it is for your children to see you pull yourself up."