"Again, the cover is incredible, her stance is so powerful. I didn’t realise when I first heard it, but a lot of the songs were actually covers, and yet, because her voice is so characterful and commanding, anything that she sings just suddenly sounds like a Grace Jones record. I love the musicianship on Nightclubbing, I love the interplay between the instruments, and it just feels like a really original-sounding record. It was actually quite an influence on me on my latest album—this idea that you know your voice should be this commanding force that just makes everything else sound like it falls into line because your voice is so dominant."

"Sitting in a house with her guitar, in a huddle with Bob Dylan and Roger McGuinn, Joni Mitchell shows the guys chords to a new song called “Coyote,” just before diving into it, in a vivid moment in “Rolling Thunder Revue.” It’s one sustained shot, handheld, and yet it feels like watching something great being born. The richness of Mitchell’s road-hardened writing weaves with her shimmering voice and guitar. Watching Dylan’s chagrined face, listening to, watching Joni, took us back to a kindred moment in the late, great D.A. Pennebaker’s classic “Don’t Look Back,” as Dylan sings “It’s All Over Now Baby Blue” while Donovan takes it in. But this time Dylan is the humbled one."

"I really like Fargo a lot. It has everything. I love the Coen brothers. I love Frances McDormand, I think she’s just an extraordinary actress. She’s so funny in that movie, as Marge. I’m from the Midwest, I’m from Iowa; so obviously that accent’s really heightened, but it’s something that I hear every time I go home. It’s something that feels like very much where I grew up; that backdrop is exactly where I grew up. It’s definitely exaggerated but yeah, there’s definitely that, “Oh, oh my gosh” where I come from. And when I go home and after I have a couple of beers you’d probably hear it come out: “You betcha!” [laughs]"

"Paul Thomas Anderson. Magnolia. I just really love it. I mean, yeah, There Will be Blood is also a close contender; I love that too. But Magnolia — the audacity of it. I watched that movie and it’s scary by the end of it [laughing]. You’ve gone through this sort of tapestry of humanity that I feel is very hard to match in a lot of cinema these days. He is always surprising me, but that movie just… He finds a way to get the drama — he has a moment where everyone starts breaking out in unified song. And it feels totally authentic and earned. I’ve never seen a movie that does that but didn’t feel indulgent."

"Sitting in a house with her guitar, in a huddle with Bob Dylan and Roger McGuinn, Joni Mitchell shows the guys chords to a new song called “Coyote,” just before diving into it, in a vivid moment in “Rolling Thunder Revue.” It’s one sustained shot, handheld, and yet it feels like watching something great being born. The richness of Mitchell’s road-hardened writing weaves with her shimmering voice and guitar. Watching Dylan’s chagrined face, listening to, watching Joni, took us back to a kindred moment in the late, great D.A. Pennebaker’s classic “Don’t Look Back,” as Dylan sings “It’s All Over Now Baby Blue” while Donovan takes it in. But this time Dylan is the humbled one."