"I’ve always espoused this dopey idea that everyone should have one Shakespeare play that they know inside out. Just pick one. For me, it’s Macbeth. I’ve seen countless performances and probably watched most every movie version. (Hey, Scotland, PA, I got your back!). For me, Roman Polanski’s Macbeth is really the greatest of all Macbeths (and would have to be in the running for best Shakespeare film). People often mention how it was Polanski’s first film after the Sharon Tate murder or how Hugh Hefner was a producer. Try to get past all the extracurricular stuff and just play’dst (with the English subtitles on, I’d suggest) for the incredible performances, the mastery of Polanski’s cine-aesthetic precision, and a bleakness that feels so relevant today. I love how it’s so true to the play yet also so clearly a Polanski film. It’s harrowing, visceral, and frightening, like all his best work."

"I think when you ask for favorite films, you’re really asking “favorite films at 15” — you know what I’m saying? Formative favorite films. I don’t think they really change much. You sort of can’t argue with your inner 13-year-old that watched something 25,000 times. Now I’ll see something adult and be affected by it — like A Separation, which I saw and I loved — but it’s gonna be hard to top those 25,000 viewings when you were 13. You get past pubescence and it’s cooked. Put a fork in it, your favorite films is done. [Laughs] Don’t hold me to it. The English Patient: Oh my gosh, it was just so affecting when I saw it. The performances are impeccable. The sense of time and place; everything about it. It’s really one of those kinds of epics — like Lawrence of Arabia is an epic. You rarely see epics any more."

"I love that album because it’s in two parts. The first part is mostly him recording everything himself and doing like a print thing where he’s exploring the studio. He’s a great producer – he did Bat Out Of Hell and loads of other stuff as well – he knows studios and studio techniques and trickery. He’s a multi-instrumentalist, and I always enjoy listening to people who are like that because they often approach their second and third instruments totally differently to an accomplished drummer or bass player. But the second part is with his band, who are also great. It ticks both boxes really! I think of these as classic rock songs even though English people never know who I’m talking about. So I feel like I’m part of some little exclusive club, even though everyone in America knows everything about Todd Rundgren [laughs]."