"What an amazing artist! She is the first woman that I was ever introduced to that played classical piano and melded it with her own style and emotions! I think the whole world should know and respect Nina Simone as I believe she is one of the absolute GREATS! The song 'Sinnerman' on this record is one of my all time favorites and whenever I hear her music, it reminds me to be as different, and skillful, and brave that I can be. And this song is the best way to feel this way."

"“I get what Bryan Ferry is trying to do – experimenting in a bizarre world and then couching what he finds in the style and language of the hunting set. It’s an exotic, intriguing concept and he’s the only one doing it. “This song [about a love affair with a blow-up doll] reveals a corner of your psyche that not many people would like to admit exists: that the mind wanders into dark places and the body follows. It’s a romantic delusion and it’s fascinating material for a song."

"It was a very powerfully influential piece of music because it was very advanced and futuristic in the way the arrangements are so unique, and in the way that they were breaking all kinds of rules. It was probably the template for most film music, which many musicians ended up borrowing the style of and introducing into cinematic media. So it was a very, very important piece of music. I loved it when I discovered it, especially when I found out there were little links between this and Bernstein."

"I think I’ll probably have to go to from Seventh Seal to Seven Samurai. With Kurosawa using the tracking shots, the way he… the energy, just the kinetic energy on screen was amazing, especially with Japanese-style acting, which is very structured and very formalized, which then breaks out, and you’re slashing somebody in half. That is pure filmmaking. I just thought, “It’s just beautiful.” Again, another movie that’s about texture, and it’s a very different texture than you get growing up in America. That began my love affair with things Japanese."

"I get what Bryan Ferry is trying to do – experimenting in a bizarre world and then couching what he finds in the style and language of the hunting set. It's an exotic, intriguing concept and he's the only one doing it. This song [about a love affair with a blow-up doll] reveals a corner of your psyche that not many people would like to admit exists: that the mind wanders into dark places and the body follows. It's a romantic delusion and it's fascinating material for a song."

"Mark Sandrich was the superlative director of Fred Astaire musicals, strikingly more successful at this demanding (though charming) form than the better known George Stevens. It’s very funny, chock-a-block with great character actors, and with wonderful music (Cole Porter) and choreography (Astaire with Hermes Pan). There’s something about works at the beginning of a form or style of cinema, even if rough and lacking couth, that I find more lovable and compelling than that form perfected (which in this case would be the gorgeous Top Hat made by Sandrich the next year)."

"The harmony of music with the simplistic style of telling that story, as a framework for it, and then the acting… It’s like bringing Broadway — true Broadway — to the desert. Picking up a little naturalism from the desert. I believed Carl Anderson; believed every word of him, every frown, every inflection of his eyebrow. I love musicals. Always have. I think you have to tell a full story; it’s like asking someone, “Do you like black and white films?” or “Do you love 3D?” Music creates that third dimension."

"Juno is for me, the perfect one-liner movie. “Thundercats are go!” “That’s one doodle that can’t be undid.” I actually do use that one, more than rarely. It’s another film with a great overall soundtrack. It’s not a style of music that I always find myself getting into, but I think it’s one of those movies where the soundtrack fits the film to a T. The movie itself is quirky, it’s got a kind of a brash attitude, and I think the music really goes hand in hand with that."