"This beautiful memoir takes us on Tembi’s personal journey of love, parenthood, and ultimately the loss of her husband, Saro. She learns to heal in the most beautiful way—through the support of three generations of women—and yes, there’s Italian food. Lots and lots of Italian food! I can’t wait for you to fall in love with this book the way I did."

"There’s a film called Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring. I saw it at the Angelika on my birthday in New York, maybe ten years ago? It never left me — it’s such a good film. It’s tremendous and beautiful. There’s like twelve words in the whole thing. It’s about a floating monastery in the middle of a lake. There’s like three people in it. That was amazing."

"“I like Tim Burton, but this is one of his that gets me every time. It’s a movie about the relationship between fathers and sons and about storytelling, and those are two things that I have particular interest in. It makes me cry like a little girl every time I see it. It has three denouements in it – after every one I’ve got tears on my face.”"

"And then kind of parallel to [Nothing but a Man] — number three would probably be my most favorite romance, Paris Blues. Sidney Poitier, Diahann Carroll, Paul Newman, and Joanne Woodward. I love it. The dialogue in that film is some of the best I’ve ever seen. And Sidney Poitier, I think, gives one of his best performances. And it’s so, so sexy, that movie."

"An Iranian poetess made this film on her own, upon a request from a leper’s house. She died three years after. I often show this most poetic and distressing film in festivals. The audience is always blown away, despite its monstrous side. I also think about the destiny of this woman, directing a movie in Iran in 1962, which must have been very difficult..."

"The Godfather. But you can’t say The Godfather I or II or III. You gotta take them all together, because, you know, they’re all of a piece. So, Godfather. Those are probably the most memorized dialogue of any film ever made. You could say any line from any of those three pictures — well, two and a half, anyway — and people would know what you’re referring to."

"The Godfather. But you can’t say The Godfather I or II or III. You gotta take them all together, because, you know, they’re all of a piece. So, Godfather. Those are probably the most memorized dialogue of any film ever made. You could say any line from any of those three pictures — well, two and a half, anyway — and people would know what you’re referring to."