“This book scared the shit out of me. I picked it up after watching the film adaptation by Tarkovsky, which is one of my favourite movies. Sometimes I feel like the only explanation for human life is that our planet is a terrible god. I like thinking that planets are living, sentient behemoths that we completely misunderstand. I’m horrified to think what it would be like if such an abstract sentience had no regard for us, or enjoying toying with us. The act of repeatedly killing a doppelganger or a loved one seems so horrific; how could anyone think of something so awful? Whenever people pour cream into coffee in a clear glass, it reminds me of this book, because that’s what I imagine the surface of Solaris to look like.”

"The same could be said about The Matrix movies, all three. A lot of people will be like, “Well, no, just the first one, because the other two weren’t to my fancy.” I liked all three because I like the entire story. What a unique concept that the world is completely fake, and amazing to think that machines could be running things, as I sit here and talk into a machine recorder. It’s just a really forward-thinking concept. I thought it was wonderfully done, and certainly a movie that, from an effects standpoint, changed the way people made movies. It’s one of those movies where people were wowed by the effects, but I think they took a back seat to what a wonderful story it was. It was such a fantastic story."

"First is Say Anything…. In terms of protagonists it doesn’t get any better than Lloyd Dobler, and John Cusack is kind of like the Holy Grail in terms of awesome ’80s protagonists that are kind of lost and don’t know what they want to do. That great speech where he says “I don’t wanna sell anything… bought, sold or processed” or whatever — you know that scene? — it’s just kind of a genius way of describing what a character’s going through. Quite frankly my character in this movie is going through a very similar thing: clearly a smart guy, probably kind of paralyzed in life because he’s done it to himself. He’s kind of over-thinking everything, so the only thing he can think of is to do nothing and work at Sun Coast video."

"The first time I watched this film, I was 13 years old, and I had no idea what kind of ‘war film’ to expect. My first reaction was that it was too slow; but as I got home that night, the poetry of the narrative, the visuals and the music began to sink in. I ended up dragging my friends to see it, watching the film five times in theaters; and though the film received mixed reactions at the time, I found Terrence Malick’s work to be a transformative meditation on the classic Transcendental themes of the brotherhood of man, self-sacrifice, and faith. It is only a ‘war film’ insofar as the war is a metaphor for the Darwinian struggle of survival in what seems an unjust world."

"This is another song that we started listening to early on in the studio, we wanted to create a universe similar to 'Hanky Panky Know How'. It's a beautiful song, it's another one where the production is like Death of a Ladies' Man. The chorus is so strange, what does that mean, you know? But somehow he still finds a way to make it beautiful and for whatever reason, that influenced us. “There's also something about the way he delivers it. When he sings it, you feel something - ‘Oh, that's so good! but what's he saying?’ And then you look it up, ‘Hanky Panky Know How’ and you have no idea what it means! Sometimes it’s just about the way things sound and feel. You can say anything as long as it feels good."

"Just watched this again the other night. About every five years or so I throw it on and enjoy it. Perhaps as some sort of antidote or palate cleanser for all the bombastic, inane crap that comprises 99% of the movies out there. For every Battleship and What To Expect When You’re Expecting, or by-the-numbers, manufactured twee, Indie quirkfest you end up seeing, you should watch this movie to equalize your sense of what a “good movie” really is. As simple a story as one can conceive (an honest man in post-war Rome who needs his bicycle for work, has it stolen and he sets out to get it back before the end of the day) that’s easily as compelling and truthful as any movie out there."

"Black Moon is a quintessential “surreal” film. What interests me is that so many films that we would label surreal were made in the sixties and seventies, decades (and many art movements) after surrealism’s inception. By the time so many of these surreal films were being made, the prevalent trend in art was toward conceptualism and minimalism, approaches aimed at stripping away the non sequitur . . . which is, in essence, the guiding principle at work in Black Moon. What is also interesting to me is the tenor of most of these films. While Zéro de conduit captures a certain joie de vivre and sense of humor, which, I feel, is indicative of the early surrealists, the nature of many later surreal films generally seems much darker—more Max Ernst than, say, Magritte."

"As obtuse as this whole list may be, what drew me to Chromeo was their name. Being a hot-rod head and a car fanatic, I loved the name. It could have been a terrible record and I would have loved it, because you ain't got nothing unless you got a lot of chrome. 

My taste doesn't run too far into dance or disco but in the grand scheme of things, and for those who are attempting to perceive what ZZ Top is, it's good on occasion to find an unexpected surprise. On occasion we'd be lumped in with southern rock bands, but we're really not – it's Texas. Which is quite a bit different. Texas is down south, but it's certainly a far cry from South Carolina or Alabama or Georgia."

"Both of these ruined me. They are what nightmares are made of: slippery women and unsavory dynamics. Things go sour when people get close fast. Which, according to both of these films, is like having your spirit sucked out of you without you knowing. 3 Women I watched my first year in LA; I’ve been here for ten. At the time I was living with two women, and the movie made me so nervous I couldn’t look them in the eye for days. Mulholland Dr. I watched last year. I should say I tried to watch it before, but the thing behind the garbage can left me so shook I stopped. Having finally made it all the way through feels like a personal victory. And what a glorious bummer it was."

"Both of these ruined me. They are what nightmares are made of: slippery women and unsavory dynamics. Things go sour when people get close fast. Which, according to both of these films, is like having your spirit sucked out of you without you knowing. 3 Women I watched my first year in LA; I’ve been here for ten. At the time I was living with two women, and the movie made me so nervous I couldn’t look them in the eye for days. Mulholland Dr. I watched last year. I should say I tried to watch it before, but the thing behind the garbage can left me so shook I stopped. Having finally made it all the way through feels like a personal victory. And what a glorious bummer it was."