"I was in love with that song when it came out. It’s so good. I remember seeing her live -- she came to the Vogue [Theatre in Vancouver] and I was dancing, and nobody was really dancing yet, and I saw one other guy in the place dancing and I looked up and it was my brother! You can tell it runs in the family."

"Most theatre actors learn to act doing Chekhov. His plays are a rite of passage. Fanatically popular, they are very hard to do well (in fact it rarely happens) but when you do hit a moment right in Chekhov's world, it brings you as close to the heart of humanity and beauty as you may ever get. “The Cherry Orchard” is a particular favorite."

"One of the proudest moments of my career was working with Mr. Lumet on his last picture. When I was collecting auction items for a benefit at my theatre in Chicago, I went to his office and he signed a copy for me to donate, then gave me my own. Getting to read about his life and career in such astonishing detail is almost as much a blessing as working with the man himself."

"Andrzej Wajda’s films had an enormous influence on me as I began writing and directing. I had lunch with him at the National Film Theatre in London, after he had just made Everything for Sale, a film I loved. It was Wajda’s tribute to Zbigniew Cybulski, his friend and the star of Ashes and Diamonds, who died young. In Ashes, Cybulski plays a resistance fighter stranded by a sellout peace. His broodiness and manner seemed to mourn James Dean."

"The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover is truly one of my favorite movies of all time. I think that it is, you know, Peter Greenaway’s genius, and it has my favorite actress in the world, Helen Mirren. It also has Michael Gambon, and Tim Roth — I mean, we could go on. The visuals are magnificent. I think it is the consummate piece about the greed of the ’80s. It’s pure theatre and it’s just a visual masterpiece."