"Well, it seems a bit silly to try and sell this album because it speaks for itself. It's one of the most perfect pieces of music ever made. When I started going out with my partner ten or 11 years ago he was obsessed with this record and would play it over and over. Initially it was all ""this is so cool and Serge is so sexy"" and the overall sound is amazing for such a short record. But then you realise that it is so minimal in a way; aside from the orchestration there is a juxtaposition of a really simple instrumentation and then these wild, beautiful string arrangements which is just incredible. However, despite all the other instruments, I discovered how important the bass guitar is from playing this record. For years after listening to Histoire De Melody Nelson the bass guitar was my favourite instrument. The story within the lyrics came later as I delved deeper into the album. You get over one thing that you find fascinating and then the lyrics are something else – the whole concept of him running over Melody Nelson. What is it – 26 minutes long? It's just perfection. You have a song like 'Valse De Melody' which is like a Disney song; just strings and Serge and you become wholly aware of how important the tracklisting is on these songs for the album to be fully realised. I think it's one of the best records ever made. It's one of those records I always think of when I try to finish making an album. I start to take everything unnecessary off what we have recorded. It's a record of simplicity."

"Let’s tall about Kurosawa‘s Dreams. When Bravo first came on television, they were figuring out who they were as a cable network and would just play random foreign films. This was before the travesty of reality television permeated their station. I was at home alone in high school, I think I was a junior in high school and Dreams comes on by Kurosawa. I could not separate myself from it. I didn’t know who Kurosawa was — I didn’t care. I was just a kid absorbing things that flashed on the screen in front of him. I was immediately captivated by this thing that was at once beautiful — obviously surreal — but at the same time palpable enough to actually hit home emotionally. I think not many people would probably describe scenes in my movies as surreal, but there are some. Kind of this magical realism that exists in that film. Also it feels ancient; it feels like when this boy comes home having witnessed the wedding of foxes and his mother’s there and says he can’t enter the home because he spied on the foxes and then presents a dagger to him and says, “They want you to kill yourself. Run. Run and ask for forgiveness.” It feels like an ancient story, it feels like something — I’m not sure what. It feels like something that kind of bubbled up from our beginning. I was fascinated by that. Just go watch it. It’s all skits, it’s basically short films strewn together. Get’s real weird by the end, but the first three are three of the greatest films I’ve ever seen."

"Okay, so I knew Lauren Oliver was a good writer, but damn! They weren't kidding when they compared this book to "The Tale of Desperaux" (which I also loved!) or "The Graveyard Book" (which I didn't finish, but found a scene very similar to the opening - it involved Bod Fading/Vanishing). Oliver's just a great storyteller, I had just gotten the book early morning at BEA and found that while waiting on line, I kept searching through my multiple tote bags to find this one so I can take advantage of the reading time instead of mingling with other fans on line. This hadn't happened to me for the two days I was there. My favorite characters were easily Liesl, Po, BUNDLE! and Will - who are the four obvious go-to-characters to have as your favorites, but their narratives were great. Different to Oliver's other novels, she wrote in third person and covered other characters beside her main, going so far to write about a guard named Mo (short for Molasses since he's so slow) and Mrs. Snout, owner of Snout's Inn and Restaurant. I'm excited to put this in the hands of my middle-grade peeps come this October, but any other lover of Lauren Oliver or YA will appreciate this story just as much. It has heart, deals with grief, and delivers questions about the Other Side as Oliver freshly explores it. "On the third night after the day her father died, Liesl saw the ghost." You'll ineffably thank me for recommending this. It's hands-down one of my favorite middle-grade stories and I'm already desperately eager to reread it."