"This is my favorite. It’s A Woman Under the Influence by John Cassavetes. What I love about his movies — especially this film too — is just the performances are so brave. The characters are so unpredictable. They’re so full of life. Also, there’s such a social commentary in this movie about how society doesn’t allow people to be who they really are, and I just find that a great metaphor for so many things in one’s life. I thought, “Through this one relationship, I’m moved in such a deep way.” I also love how Cassavetes pushes the performances so far that it finds this kind of amazing poetry at a certain point. I particularly remember this scene where Gena Rowlands is basically just so misunderstood and so cut down and beaten down that she finds this physicality. It was almost like a moment of ballet. I just think there’s something very genius going on in that film and very brave and I love it. It’s a beautiful film."

"In 1993, a good friend of mine who had recently moved to Livingston, Montana introduced me to Jim Harrison. He had flown to Wisconsin to join me for a weekend of waterfowl hunting and brought with him Harrison’s The Woman Lit by Fireflies, which he was convinced I’d like. I read the book the following week and felt it had cast a spell on me. I called my friend and thanked him profusely for introducing me to Harrison. Then I read everything else Harrison had written, including his poetry (Harrison considered himself, first and foremost a poet), which I found as evocative as his novellas and novels. I especially admired Harrison’s attention to the details of a landscape. Harrison, in turn, led me to a group of Western writers—Thomas McGuane, William Kittredge, Ivan Doig, and Cormac McCarthy, to name only a few—who would have a profound effect on my writing."

"A visual genius working at the height of his powers. For emotional heft, this film can’t compete with Wong Kar Wai’s heartbreaking In the Mood for Love, but just try keeping The Grandmaster’s gorgeous imagery from being seared into your brain. The cinematography and choreography are exquisite. They’re just poetry. I was absolutely transfixed watching this film during the early stages of Kubo’s production cycle. After I picked my jaw off the floor I completely reconsidered all of Kubo’s action scenes. We had to step up our game. Wong Kar Wai had raised the bar to soaring, impossible new heights. The terrific filmmaker Zhang Yimou — who himself made two flawless action epics (Hero and House of Flying Daggers) — once said that every boy wants either a train set or to make a martial arts movie. I never had a train set. After seeing The Grandmaster, I have a feeling Wong Kar Wai didn’t either."