"There are two books that I absolutely live my life by. This is one of them. Growing up, I was always curious about religion. This book made the most sense to me; it's about the way you live your life. I believe in karma and doing the right thing even if it may not advance you as far as you want. If every single person felt the same way about karma and intention, then the world gets fixed tomorrow. But temptation gets in the way. Zukav is right: It may take lifetimes to learn."

"This is one of my absolute favorite albums! Biggie is one of the best MC’s there ever was and for me he really inspired me to think deeper about how far you can take concepts of songs and where they can take you. He had a way of being lyrical, witty and emotional and that is a lethal combination. Honestly my favorite Biggie song on this album is 'Me and My Bitch'—I know it sounds crazy but this song about love in the life of a hustler, really painted a vivid picture for me."

"How can I not list this “dream of dark and troubling things.” Lynch has made such a vast impact on today’s culture, and this is where it started. The midnight movie—sorry to Waters, Jodorowsky, Argento, and Romero, but Eraserhead owns that mantle. I know there are some who don’t “get it,” and that’s fine, but to me it is so inspiring that someone can spend years of his life making such a far-out slice of deranged weirdness, and somehow, somewhere, there are people who not only “get it” but love it to death."

"Thank you, Criterion, for putting this amazingly creepy film out into the world in such a beautiful, definitive way. This is by far one of my favorite psychological horror films of all time. The Criterion version was an unbelievable step up from the VHS copy I had of this for years, when the film was strangely titled Corridors of Evil, for some reason. Carnival of Souls is like a fever-dream-elongated Twilight Zone episode. It’s a masterpiece, and I love falling asleep to the film as well. It induces great, strange dreams."

"The way I look at it is that I’ve been searching for the perfect album to drink beer to my whole life. As far as that goes, this is it. This is the album. Perfect music to get drunk to: Iggy Pop and The Stooges. It’s just that raw energy. All the pieces are there, but it’s not squeaky clean. Like his album Raw Power, that’s exactly what his music is. Take your shirt off and chug a beer. That’s all there is to life at that point when you listen to that record."

"In the early ’80s, Seidelman made two of the coolest movies ever made back-to-back. First came this urgent, spiky punk-rock fable—with its striving outsiders and crazy rhythms—and then the great Desperately Seeking Susan. Both present a vision of Manhattan as a broken, semi-lawless amusement park in deep decline—a version of New York City that was long gone by the time I arrived there in 1999. Watching Smithereens is like being teleported to a far-off planet that’s about to be colonized."