"Roxane Gay is one of the funniest and most insightful authors, and her book of essays is essential reading because I think most women can relate to her varied interests, and I am no exception. Gay, an academic and prolific author, writes about watching certain reality shows but also recognizing how damaging they can be. She writes about feminism in a way that is deeply authentic and realistic. Also, as someone who has had to work her way up this business for years, I really appreciate that she is an overnight success twenty years in the making"

"Roxane Gay is one of the funniest and most insightful authors, and her book of essays is essential reading because I think most women can relate to her varied interests, and I am no exception. Gay, an academic and prolific author, writes about watching certain reality shows but also recognizing how damaging they can be. She writes about feminism in a way that is deeply authentic and realistic. Also, as someone who has had to work her way up this business for years, I really appreciate that she is an overnight success twenty years in the making."

"I love a big adventure; it’s one of the reasons I like Dances with Wolves, also on the list. Because I feel that this was also a big adventure [to film] and I like the very realistic feeling, what Kevin Costner did with that movie. I love that movie. It’s emotional, and it’s real, in a way. I really like it. [Editor’s note: check back for next week’s full interview with Uwe Boll as he tells us how he almost got Kevin Costner to join the cast of Dungeon Siege: In the Name of the King!]"

"Our developed world is bursting with screens and projections pumping out an incessant stream of what’s real, and what’s represented to be real. In this moment when we are witnessing the evolution of virtual reality, I find Baudrillard’s classic work of semiotics especially relevant. It has been hugely influential for me as a basis from which to explore important concepts and ethics around what our relationship with art and meaning will become. In the future, we will increasingly view the world through representations of reality, which will become so realistic that our brains could become completely deceived."