"The most detailed and fascinating book about a recording engineer who worked on some of my favorite records. I wish there were more music books as good as this. Even though it seems impossible to know the final two Talk Talk albums and Mark Hollis’ solo album better than by listening to their murky, beautiful, sparse sound worlds, this series of first-hand accounts of the sessions —and those for Nilsson, Bob Marley and others—is incredibly illuminating."

"The first Terry Gilliam film I ever saw. I was ten years old, and it’s still my favorite (Brazil comes in at a close second). What ten-year-old wouldn’t want to be Kevin, pursued by a godlike figure, with a band of pirate dwarfs, while hopping from one major historical event to the next? I can’t remember how many times I’ve seen this, but it’s probably the same number of times I’ve watched The Goonies. —BF"

"Well, it was an actor playing Othello. It was written by Garson Kanin, who later married a teacher of mine, but he was married to Ruth Gordon, who was a favorite actress of mine. And it was a movie about the theater. I love those kinds of in-house things. I love political movies or plays, but especially plays about the inner workings of the business, or that give you insight into the process of what actors go through."