"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."