"On the flipside of happy, the Nico net caught me early. Her voice equalled the sound of a body being thrown out of a window - entirely with out hope, of this world, or the next, or the previous. Onstage, she moved like a big bleak creaking house, never once altering the direction of her eyes. I am in love. Her harmonium heaves and swells like crashing waves answering each other. If Nico could've laughed, she would've. But she couldn't, so she didn't"

"Hey, storytellers: if you’re adapting a classic, this is film school 101. Never before or since (though I love Black Swan for trying) has anyone achieved what Powell and Pressburger did here, in terms of character and theme. Add the beautiful work of Jack Cardiff and you achieve something of which I, personally, can only hope to replicate a glimmer as a visual storyteller in comics and animation: Technicolor atmosphere that conveys immediate emotion and also has a lasting impact."

"The brilliant teacher I had for a Shakespeare seminar at Yale (Joel Dorius) asked us one day if we had an idea of what heaven, for us, would consist of. What you’d hope it would be. His own answer: “Just to sit in a screening room, watching Marcel Carné’s Children of Paradise projected repeatedly and endlessly throughout eternity.” Hard to argue with that when you see and resee this classic. Dorius’s version of heaven beats hell out of harps and angels."

"Lately, I’ve gotten really into her. I know a lot of people who like her, but it tends to be girls and…I’m not one to reinforce gender stereotypes, and I think it’s important to listen to female singer-songwriters next to your Slayer and Descendents. Begin To Hope has had some big pop hits, like “Fidelity”. I know people who can’t get down with the lyrics, and she does quirky things with her voice. But it’s a great album."

"I think I’m going to really nail my colors to the mast and say a movie called Paddington, which is yet to come out. I saw it for the first time the other day, and even though I am in it, I do think it is a glorious film. I’m incredibly proud to be part of it, and I think it’s a film that families will watch, I hope, for generations to come and enjoy it in the same way that I [do]."