"Number one is a movie that I think I underestimated a little bit when it came out. It is “Spy,” with Melissa McCarthy. A just amazing comedy. And The Academy is notoriously blind to comedies; comedy is very rarely in contention for the Best Picture. And, you know there’s the old saying, “Comedy is hard.” What Melissa McCarthy does, in going from a mousy desk jockey at the C.I.A. — with literal mice in her office — into an international woman of mystery and intrigue and an action heroine, is so incredible. It’s like Peter Sellers, like Inspector Clouseau. You know, it’s at that level of inventiveness, physical and verbal. bsolutely the Best Actress. Like, there’s no question that she was robbed for Best Actress. And yeah, Best Picture too. Why not? Get rid of “The Martian,” you know? Give it to “Spy.”"

"Charles McCarry was an undisputed master of spy fiction. I love all his books, but The Miernik Dossier is possibly the most outstanding due to the sheer audacity of its form. There is no narrative in any traditional sense—instead the reader is presented with a series of documents "written" by the main characters, and must deduce the truth from the conflicting, self-serving accounts these contain."