"Let’s start with Love Jones, which is just a classic. One of the first times I saw myself reflected on screen in a way – just a beautiful story, a love story that felt textured and layered and interesting and beautifully shot, with Black people in the lead positions. The music, all of it, just touched a deep place in my soul and was fantastic."

"Studs Terkel was a radio host in Chicago who also wrote fantastic oral histories about 20th century America by interviewing regular people about their lives. He covered the Great Depression in Hard Times; World War II in The Good War; and, in this book, what people’s jobs mean to them. His books are invaluable time capsules of how Americans in previous generations spoke and thought about themselves."

"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."

"Narrative films will never grow stale as long as filmmakers have tricks like Rashomon structures in their bag. Not only filled with fantastic acting, tremendous cinematography, and a haunting soundtrack, Rashomon attempts what great films always strive for—to express an inexpressible . . . in this case, the nature of truth, or . . . the nature of humans’ inability to realize the fallibility of their own perception, their own stories."

"This is kind of a weird one. Well, not weird; just totally different from Star 80. I love 12 Monkeys. It’s one of my favorite movies of all time. I love sci-fi, and I think Terry Gilliam is just a genius. That movie is just so fantastic. The whole tie-in with the Hitchcock movie. It’s just so smart; it’s such a smart science fiction film."

"Paul Thomas Anderson — what a fantastic director. These are all directors that I would love to work with, you know. I doubt any of them could give a sh*t. [laughs.] Boogie Nights. Pretty epic. It just captured that era so brilliantly. Mark Wahlberg, man — great role. Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman — they just blow me away. I could watch it again and again. Great movie."

"Jaws is my favorite film of all time. I’ve seen it about 30 times. Even though it has a ludicrous backdrop of them trying to find this Great White shark, I think it’s a film about people and relationships — and I just think the performances are fantastic. It has amazing characters and it has this very commercial, suspenseful backdrop, so I do think it’s a perfect movie."