"Bill Foege is one of my heroes. Among his many accomplishments, he was instrumental in ridding the world of smallpox, which is still the only human disease ever eradicated. This book gives you a great view from the front lines of that battle. Bill was a mentor to Melinda and me in the early days of our philanthropy, and he continues to give us great advice today. I also recommend his deeply moving Gates Notes article about fighting river blindness. It’s a fantastic story that gives you real insight into how he thinks about his work."

"I first saw this movie on a third-generation bootleg without subtitles while I was making my first real movie, Modern Love Is Automatic. It changed the way I made that movie (there were pickup shots in Modern Love that were slated “Jeanne Dielman, take 1”) and the way I thought about movies, art, and time in general. This movie never gets enough credit for how funny and tense it is—it’s equal parts scathing satire and deconstruction/reinvention of the Hitchcockian thriller. Film financiers of the world, give all your money to twentysomething Belgian women."

"It’s a French movie, pretty recently that I just – and I’m not alone, it was, like, the biggest movie of the year around the world – but I just love it so much. It’s so great. It’s about a friendship between two guys: one who is a super rich guy who is a paraplegic and his caretaker, and the friendship that comes of that working relationship. It’s funny, it’s real, it’s sweet, it’s moving. I cried, l laughed — it’s just a brilliant film. And I’m not surprised it did as well as it did. It’s so good, it’s so good."

"My mother gave me this book to read in high school when I was sick with malingering cold and missing out on social events. But it was absorbing, unlike any other historical fantasy I’d read. Viewing Arthurian legend through the eyes of the female characters upended my sense of history altogether, showing me that even real world events can be viewed through many lenses. I loved identifying with the enchantress turned crusader. So dramatic! The heart strings it plucked—sexual frisson, jealousy, courage, betrayal, magic power—perfectly aligned with my turbulent emotional state as a restless young woman."