"It was a very powerfully influential piece of music because it was very advanced and futuristic in the way the arrangements are so unique, and in the way that they were breaking all kinds of rules. It was probably the template for most film music, which many musicians ended up borrowing the style of and introducing into cinematic media. So it was a very, very important piece of music. I loved it when I discovered it, especially when I found out there were little links between this and Bernstein."

"I've been dipping in and out of this book since my early 20s. I completely respond to one of its basic notions — self-responsibility. It's about preparing for a good death, and I've found that in having a child, you're confronted by your mortality each day as the child grows and blossoms. But every single element in our Western society is a denial of death. We don't want to think about it, which compounds the terror we feel about it. This book helps one to navigate one's way through the terror."

"I’m currently reading Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley by Peter Guralnick. Young Elvis lived in a non-wealthy section of non-wealthy Tupelo, MS and Memphis, TN, and liked to wear a lot of pink, which was unusual in either place. He was kind of a rebel without a cause, but then he found his calling, and the success story is pretty entertaining. His junior prom picture shows a young girl with what looks like a cardboard cutout of the King…he’s just already totally there, and he’s like 16."

"I found this book interesting, uncomfortably informative, addictive and necessary. “Looking for Palestine” is a memoir/coming-of-age by the young Najla Said, an actress, writer and daughter of the brilliant Edward Said (a Columbia professor and prominent advocate of Palestine independence), and Mariam Said (artist, writer and activist). I’ve seen Najla’s play of the same name, but her book took me even further into this young New Yorker’s quest to make some sense of all of her worlds. If your goal is to be immersed and moved, this is it."

"Cronenberg is a genius. He reinvented genre filmmaking, giving it the depth of the most ambitious fiction. This truly visionary work must be one of his masterpieces. When it was released, I couldn’t believe my eyes. I couldn’t believe a filmmaker could have not just captured the very soul of our present, or its hidden meaning, but also found its poetry, the mysterious beauty of it. eXistenZ, shot fifteen years later in a very different world, echoes it in fascinating ways. I consider David Cronenberg to be one of the great modern artists."

"Directors going independent to make precisely the film they want was not begun — as we sometimes think — by the latterday Johns (Cassavetes and Sayles). After World War Two John Ford formed an indie with the legendary producer (war hero also) Merian C. Cooper: Wagon Master was the lovely result, a film that seems like folk art. The stirring score and brilliant diagonals of Ford’s composition greatly inspired us in the Barcelona edit room — though I’m not sure if any trace of that influence could be found in our film."