"Kramer vs. Kramer is one of my favorite films, where you have a story that really juxtaposes a lot of ideas that we have about family, and about parenting. Again, an incredibly simple plot that allows for really rich exploration of character, and one of the best screenplays I’ve ever read."

"This book was my late sister Thomasina’s favorite as a child, though it is close to my heart for other than sentimental reasons, too. Within its prettily illustrated story about a fussy eater, it is understanding and touching about the fears and joys of food, and of childhood. So enduringly touching."

"This has been my favorite film since I was twelve years old. I’m pretty sure I could recite it in its entirety. It has a wildly funny all female cast and a female writer. I revisit it almost every year and my appreciation for the performances and the writing grows."

"Senegalese director Djibril Diop Mambéty’s 1973 film about a young man and woman in a modern African city who don’t fit in. So they get out. They get far out. The raw energy and often hyper-experimental nature of the music, visuals, and editing make this a favorite. Beautiful. Fully punk."

"Of all the great memoirs to come out of the Black Power Movement (Angela Davis, Bobby Seales, Amiri Baraka, Nina Simone) Assata is my favorite. I draw a lot of inspiration from the Black Power Movement, and the way that she describes her activism is overflowing with passion and heart."

"Eye roll. It’s my favorite of all Shakespeare’s work. I love the play so much. It’s truly perfect. It’s a work that still influences film, TV, other books. I love how Shakespeare can really rip your heart out one second and then make you laugh the next. He’s a master writer."

"La strada, 8½, and La dolce vita are my favorite Fellini films. It’s hard to pick one. But the ending of La dolce vita always moves me and sticks with me after the film has finished. It’s all done without words, just with images and the sound of crashing waves."

"I probably watched this DVD twenty times within a year of buying it. Like Robocop, an example of “I liked this film, but now that it is on Criterion, it is probably more of a masterpiece than I remembered.” Also, my favorite Criterion package design, with the fake videocassette look."

"The best novel, surely, of a writer we love because he makes us question our favorite beliefs. His Aziz, Fielding, Adela, and the Anglo-Indian lot are the superb metaphors in the moral drama as well as people I seem to remember as if I had known and interacted with them."

"Daniel Saldaña París is the Mexican Philip Roth, dare I say, and his novel is both satirical and self-reflective, which is my favorite mode of literary expression. I met him a few years ago, and speaking with him about writing fiction was like talking to a long lost twin."