"What touched me about that was the friendship. In a very weird sort of way there are some similarities between my films — probably pretty-much The Firm — and Midnight Cowboy, only inasmuch as it’s a hard world but soft characters. There’s something about that friendship with two people that transcends where the film’s set. I have friendships where you’re like two old women, nagging away at each other, and you kind of hate each other in a lot of ways but you’re inextricably embroiled with one another. That’s what true friendship is, you know. There’s such a tragedy about Midnight Cowboy as well and there’s such an amazing smell of New York in the 70s. It’s one of the few films where it transports you there and you can feel the environment."

"The Sweet Smell of Success is, I think, one of the best — certainly one of the greatest New York films, for me — ever made. Alexander Mackendrick, great director. Unbelievable script. James Wong Howe, unbelievable camerawork. And Tony Curtis and Burt Lancaster — to see those two going at it, and really, you know, the tragedy of corruption and how it infiltrates every aspect of peoples’ lives. There was something so deeply dark and cynical about it. But yeah, there’s this sort of tiny little germ of hope at the end of the film, as Susan walks off with the musician boyfriend that Hunsecker has tried to destroy, and you just feel like, you know, absolute power corrupts but not totally. Still, it has a vicious sting to it, that film. It really affected me."

"It’s one of the most perfectly produced albums ever. The songs are great. It’s definitely Lou Reed at his best. I listened to it thousands of times when I was growing up. It was the must have record when I was at college. Everybody that got into punk had it in their collection at some point. It was a celebration of New York City – a writer writing about their hometown. It was quite a dangerous record. Visually he looked OK, but the music was far more subtle than all the glam stuff that was really in your face, like T-Rex and early Bowie. I was also a big Andy Warhol fan. I’d listened to the Velvets a lot, but it was quite a jump from that to the quality of this record."