"Yeats: say no more. I’m of Irish ancestry so the world of Yeats is magical, mournful and evocative of a faraway time and place familiar to my soul. I often love to read these poems aloud to myself late at night. My favorite is “The Second Coming,” with its prescient warning to our world today."

"Steven Soderbergh’s film inspired by the UK miniseries. One of my favorite filmmakers, and this is one of many of his that I just love. From his big-budget studio films to the smaller art films, he always finds such a unique way to tell a story. And he knows how to hold a camera!"

"I think my favorite movie is Lawrence of Arabia. To me, it’s just about a perfect film; in the performances and what it means to me. I saw it as a boy — and I just can’t stop watching it, every time it comes on. All David Lean’s movies, really. I love Doctor Zhivago, too."

"Hard to choose a favorite Kieslowski. This one is so wonderfully evocative and rich. We’ve all felt that quantum split, even for a second, and this is a film that illustrates that feeling perfectly. Zbigniew Preisner scored most, if not all, of Kieslowski’s features, and their creative sympathy is really evident in The Double Life."

"This is a hugely underrated film, probably because it is so long and, coming so soon after the war, it got almost no distribution here. But it’s my second favorite Powell film, because he really gets under the skin of the government that ran England. Of course, it’s all about Churchill. An amazing film."

"Out of all the films I watch — I mean the ones I’m mentioning — I’ve probably watched this one, for some reason, more than all the others. The actors in it — the acting is stupendous. The story, direction, and the whole thing. And it features one of my favorite actors in the world as well."

"Emily Nussbaum is my very favorite television critic, and this collection of her work is so much fun. Over the years, she’s written incredibly insightful pieces about juggernauts like The Sopranos and Sex and the City, but she also has terrific essays here about less obvious shows like Vanderpump Rules and Jane the Virgin."

"No, not vampires; the late William Gay unfortunately didn't anticipate the world takeover of Bella and Edward when he named his backwoods Tennessee gothic novel, but it is no less a stunning web of Cormac McCarthy-esque necrophilia, murder, spot-on rural dialogue, and haunting renditions of nature. He is my new favorite writer."