"If I put Casablanca on I’ll sound like AFI, right? [laughs] Here’s the thing: there are all the choices you can make that you know sound really good and then there’re the ones that you really watch, like a hundred times. Like Paulie, the film with the parrot — but if I put that on my list I’m gonna look like an idiot. [laughs] You must see Paulie! I know you think I’m crazy. I love Paulie. I have these films that my younger brother’s like, “Amy, you’re gonna love this — you have to watch this film.” He introduced me to Paulie. There’s a whole bunch of people in Paulie: there’s Gena Rowlands, Jay Mohr, Cheech; the guy from Monk, Tony Shalhoub, who’s one of my favorites. It’s such a touching story. I hope I haven’t built it up too much. [laughs]"

"Some books save lives. On its thirty-fifth anniversary, this book is still doing it. If you have never read this wise, accurate and still fresh reality-check on how black women have often been left out of the public image of both the civil rights and feminist movements – even though they disproportionately created both – read this book. You will see the world whole. In recent times, for instance, why did 51% of white women voters support Donald Trump, yet 96% of black women voters supported Hillary Clinton? This book will explain why. More than any other definable group, black women are the hope for the democratic future of this country. And after you finish this book by Paula Giddings, read A Sword Among Lions, her great biography of Ida B. Wells. You will see how long black women have been leading us."

"Clearly we’ll start here. I hope it’s fairly obvious, my adoration of it, but I think that what it represents is probably bigger than the actual film itself. It was the first film I’d ever seen that was really something I could identify with, so it has a big place in my heart and my mind. But actually, the more you went back and looked at The Firm, the more you could pick very small holes in it, you know. Whereas, obviously, I could talk about The Godfather, but there’s nothing you could find wrong with that — it’s a true masterpiece. What was amazing about the original Firm was Gary Oldman, and the brutality and the Steadicam and stuff like that. Because it was the first film that ever really affected me, it’s always going to have a place in my heart.”"