"I first read this in school as a teenager where everyone in class had to read out three paragraphs and then it moved on to the next student. The experience always stuck with me, as did the Brontë sisters — strong women of that time who had to hide behind a pseudonym. I always love their words."

"Taught me that we are going to die and we don’t know why. (I had coffee with him the year before he died and asked him to sign a copy “to John Cameron Mitchell”. He started writing in a shaky hand, then paused. “Do you need all three?”)
Read, age 25 in St-Germain-Des-Pres, Paris."

"Like Lynch, I chose to go with another pair of career milestones. Blood Simple put the Coen brothers (and cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld) on the map with their unique visual style and storytelling and remains one of the greatest film debuts ever. And Llewyn Davis shows that even three decades later, Joel and Ethan can still top themselves."

"Number three would be Lon Chaney as Phantom of the Opera. I think what struck me was his theatrics. Again, he did go over and big, as that era of acting would dictate, but he did it with such conviction and such truth that I bought every single minute of it. He left me, again, terrified and chilled."

"This is another terrific piece of journalism written years ago about an even earlier time. It’s a portrait of the city of Boston during the racial strife of the ‘60’s and ‘70s. Lucas tracks the lives of three families — African-American, Irish, and upwardly mobile Yankee — to bring the struggles of that era back to life."