"The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was the first book I read in the hospital. I had been having headaches and couldn’t read or focus properly for a while. It is a lovely book, and it was given to me by Gordon Brown — he sent me 25 books, and this was my favorite"

"Five Easy Pieces is a film that hit me as a young man. Most of my favorite movies, I think, come from the ’70s, in that period where I really wanted to become an actor. Jack Nicholson’s performance in that… it’s a film that would never be done by a major studio today."

"Very early Stanley Kubrick, the true hard-core grit of World War I. Down in the trenches with one of my favorite performances by Kirk Douglas. The beautiful blonde woman, who sings away the pain for a bunch of soldiers at the end of the film, would soon after become Mrs. Kubrick."

"I do like… I’m a big Preston Sturges fan. I like all of them, but I especially like, probably Palm Beach Story, and Miracle at Morgan’s Creek is one of my favorites. I happen to love it. I think it’s maybe one of my favorite… 20 movies, ’cause there’s so many great things."

"I do like… I’m a big Preston Sturges fan. I like all of them, but I especially like, probably Palm Beach Story, and Miracle at Morgan’s Creek is one of my favorites. I happen to love it. I think it’s maybe one of my favorite… 20 movies, ’cause there’s so many great things."

"I saw Flowers for the first time during grad school in the early 1990s, and Rossellini’s deceptively simple depiction of grace and faith has never left me. I always wanted to see it again, so I was beyond thrilled when I found out that Criterion was releasing it. Hands down my favorite Rossellini."

"My favorite film of the past decade. A funny-sad tapestry of slummy British life and a portrait of a striver poking her way up through the concrete. Best dance sequences and best sound design and best use of Nas. See Michael Fassbender begin his reign as resident psychosexual nightmare heartthrob here."

"So I have to think of one more? Okay, I’ll say that on the plane coming here I saw The Reader and I thought that was an amazing film, a very affecting film dealing with an almost overfamiliar subject but in an almost novel and emotional way. That’s my current favorite movie."

"My favorite of Flann O’Brien’s novels, although I love At-Swim-Two-Birds. Profound, haunting, mystical and utterly hilarious. The bizarre narrative is accompanied by an eccentric parallel saga about something obscure called The De Selby Codex, a red herring that gradually grows in quantity until it all but obscures the main story."