"My all-time personal favorite. I love this book, all of it: the plot, the characters, the dialogue, much of which was lifted verbatim by John Huston for his screenplay for the beloved movie of the same name. The single best monologue in fiction appears toward the end, when Sam Spade tells Brigid O’Shaughnessy why he’s giving her to the police."

"Polanski was so inventive in this film. The black and white, the music mixed with the images of her walking through London. The rabbit. Hands coming through the walls. Polanski is a master of tension in unexpected details. Like when she's giving the manicure and cuts the woman’s cuticles . . . I'm pretty sure Aronofsky was huffing these fumes with Black Swan."

"Here, Isak Dinesen explores the question of art, its life giving potential, the road it travels, sometimes parallel to, sometimes in direct collision with morality, acts of generosity and grace that, seemingly different, have the same source. Babette says these words that continually inspire and encourage me: “All that an artist asks is this: give me leave to do my utmost."