"The first book I ever really wanted to read on my own. I spent hours as a kid staring at different stuff in my room, trying to make something levitate. To this day, when most people would reference the Bible to make a point about morality or whatever, instead of Judas or Jesus, I’m more likely to bring up Snape or Sirius. When I miss home on tour and can’t get to sleep, I listen to the audiobooks. My inner monologue is narrated by Jim Dale."

"I think when you're looking back at someone's career, it's very easy to appreciate all the different stops along the way. Dylan is one of the first people that I discovered as a teenager, who really changed my life and made me want to make music. People are only starting to love the records from Dylan's religious phase, but 'Pressing On' was a big reference for the new record because of the choir. Obviously, that's a very holy sound, and we wanted to create something similar."

"Once I learned how to read Shakespeare (not till my mid-40s; I was a model), I realized maybe there are aliens out there who have two ideas per sentence. We’re lucky to get one per book. Greenblatt is a star-crossed scholar, who’s bestie at Cambridge, Eric Idle, became a member of Monty Python. So how much more fun can you get? I’m already wheezing to blow this island to get Stephen’s latest, “The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve,” and will need all of Will’s sonnets and plays, too, for reference."

"The most influential rock film ever made (A Hard Day’s Night is probably second). It’s more than thirty years old, but it’s still the default reference for every rock group with a sense of humor (even if none of the band members were alive when it was originally released). It somehow has more cultural sticking power than most of the music it satirizes. There’s never been a real documentary about a real band that captures the nature of heavy rock as deftly as this unreal documentary about a fake band."