"I watched this 1947 stark, black and white, noirish prison drama as part of research for a film I directed called Animal Factory, written by novelist and ex-convict Eddie Bunker. For years I thought director Jules Dassin was a Frenchman working in the U.S. I was surprised to learn he was an American (Russian Jew) from Connecticut who fled the U.S. during the red scare of the fifties. He ended up in Paris and made the wonderful French film Rififi, which added to my confusion. The Naked City (1948) by Dassin is also a classic, shot on gloriously gritty locations in New York City."

"A teacher gave me Flannery O’Connor’s short story collection in the ninth grade. I grew up in a small town where girls were taught to be polite and not laugh too loud or talk too much or show interest in anything that might scare away the boys. It was a revelation to read O’Connor’s work. Here was a woman from a small Georgia town (like me!) who in direct contravention to her sex and social class was writing the kinds of stories that I was not only interested in reading, but wanted to start writing myself. Her bravery and clarity of vision laid an early foundation for my own work."