"Terry Gilliam is a living treasure, and we are squandering him foolishly with every film of his that remains unmade. Proof that our world is the poorer for this can be found in two of his masterpieces. Gilliam is a fabulist pregnant with images—exploding with them, actually—and fierce, untamed imagination. He understands that “bad taste” is the ultimate declaration of independence from the discreet charm of the bourgeoisie. He jumps with no safety net and drags us with him into a world made coherent only by his undying faith in the tale he is telling. Brazil remains one of the most important films of my life, and Time Bandits is a Roald Dahl–ian landmark to all fantasy films. Seeing Time Bandits with my youngest daughter just two weeks ago, I was delighted when she laughed and rejoiced at the moment when Kevin’s parents explode into a cloud of smoke."

"This book was given to me by friend and colleague Ben Vickers, and although it was considered by Jung to be his most important work, very few people had seen it before it was reproduced as a facsimile edition in 2009. During the first world war, Carl Jung embarked on an extended self-exploration which he referred to as his “confrontation with the unconscious,” culminating in this extraordinary illuminated volume created between 1914 and 1930. Best described as an early example of bio-hacking the mind, he developed profound journeying techniques that took him to the essence of his inner cognitive processes, which he called active imagination. The Red Book charts these visionary moments in Jung's life with great illumination in a mode akin to the medieval manuscripts of the saints and William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. Its true significance has yet to be understood in the 21st century."

"Every single song on here is incredible and all their imagery really captured my imagination. I just loved that everything was black: they were in black leathers, the album cover was black and it was just so stylistically arresting for me. 

 I just loved how it sounded really smart too. He sounded to me both dangerous and educated, a [combination] I found really intriguing. I didn't always understand what the lyrics were about, but I got the sort of gist. I was a young teenage girl in Scotland and I'd grown up in a very conventional family and this just felt dangerous and exciting to me. It was the sort of life that I wanted to pursue – whatever is on that record, the sound of that record, that's what I wanted to pursue in my life. I wanted smart boys [laughs] dressed in black leather sounding dangerous. That's what I wanted, and that's what I went after [laughs]. "

"It was between The Idiot and Fun House, but it's almost like The Idiot and Low are part of the same package or something. Low is an incredibly ambitious and strange and enjoyable album. My parents weren't into pop music, but one of my very first memories is being at a child's party and hearing 'Starman'. So Bowie is one of the people who made me consider that I liked music. It was a really important, formative thing. Low is probably just from becoming a fan, getting all the records and deciding that that was my favourite one. It's not often you hear a record and can't actually approximate the thought processes that went into making the song. Maybe that comes from imagination run wild through drugs psychosis, or maybe them just sat around having a laugh going 'you know what would be mental? Let's have a ten-minute song where I start chanting in the middle of it'."

"A few years ago, I read that Mike Nichols made sure there was always a window or door visible near Benjamin when he was with Mrs. Robinson. As if to say he could have left at any time. He wasn’t a victim. This movie endures for me because it keeps changing in significance. It began as a risqué and wild peek into a slightly nerdy guy’s life. Now, as a middle-aged mother, I see it differently. For starters, Anne Bancroft was only thirty-five years old during filming—she was hardly the crone or predator I had viewed her as when I was a girl. In fact, watching it now, I see a woman who is toying with a curious young man, a woman stepping off the grid for something that is entirely her own and not meant for public consumption. In my imagination, Mrs. Robinson has other lovers, and The Graduate is just a moment in her arc of disillusionment."