"I’ve seen it at least fifty times. I often put it on as I’m working or eating breakfast. Kore-eda has made several great, empathetic films––After Life, Nobody Knows, and the underappreciated I Wish––but for me Still Walking is his best. He made it shortly after his mother died, and you can tell. The film’s extraordinary warmth and humor are animated by deep feelings of grief and bitter disappointment. That emotional confusion exists in balance with his formal precision, restraint, and command of detail, and the result is remarkably, minutely true. It makes me happy."

"The next one would be Life Is Beautiful. I could barely speak after seeing that film. I was so moved by it. And again, actually, come to think of it, it’s a very dramatic and comedic film all at once. It’s a true mash-up. The drama of it, though, is the driver, and it’s done so skillfully, and it is so heartbreaking. And the relationship between father and son is so moving and the lengths to which the father will go to try and protect his son under the absolute worst of circumstances is so valiant and catastrophic, really."

"A novel that has as its main character an Old Lady who is liberated from the boredom of her secure life at an eccentric home for elderly ladies when given a hearing trumpet — and whose wish to go to the North pole before she dies comes true in the most unlikely fashion — has to be good. Even though she is better known as one of the best painters of Surrealism Leonora Carrington’s novels and short stories have had a strong influence on feminist and fantastic fiction. Constantly entertaining and unpredictable The Hearing Trumpet is infused with warmth and rebellion in equal measures."