"We'll finish with my favorite hardcore record of all. Converge, to me, stand apart from all genres and scenes as just simply the best heavy band in the world, possibly ever. I never tire of their output, they're endlessly inventive, exciting, weird, vicious, and just plain fucking brilliant. Of all their records this is my favorite as it just seems a little more direct, stripped back, dare I say it, hardcore than the others. This is definitely my desert island hardcore album."

"Although Mike Leigh’s family dramas, such as High Hopes and Secrets & Lies, have had a more apparent influence on my work, Naked is my favorite film of Leigh’s. It’s in my top ten favorite films ever made. It’s an exhausting odyssey that never gets the characters (or the viewer) home again. “Tell me, love, are you aware of the effect you have on the average mammalian, Mancunian, XY-ly chromosome, slavering, lusty male member of the species?” Now, that’s dialogue!"

"Chekhov is one of my favorite playwrights and this is my favorite of his works. It's so demented and thrilling and morose. Chekhov has such a fantastic way of capturing a dysfunctional and emotionally abusive family dynamic, there's never a dull moment in his plays. This play in particular — with its themes of love and desire and fears of growing old and being alone — are exactly the kind of catharsis I would enjoy while sitting on a beach in my own isolation."

"I can give you them as they come to mind; right now, when you say “five favorite films,” the first one that came to my mind — and I’m trying to think of different genres as well — the first one that came to my mind is The Shining. I do not know why, but that’s been one of my all-time favorite films. I’ve seen it about four times. I think that’s a lot for someone who’s completely petrified by darkness and lonely places."