"When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi. Kalanithi’s brave memoir chronicles in exquisite prose his brave battle with terminal illness, but rather than verge into depressing territory, it is a triumphant and inspiring read. His words make one rethink our perception of time—to not only imagine what we might achieve in the future, but to cherish the beauty that surrounds us in the present"

"When I first saw this at university, in 1960, I found it boring. Yet something made me watch it a second time that same term, and I fell under the spell of Antonioni’s mesmeric camera movements, his grasp of love and its heartaches, and above all the impassioned beauty of Monica Vitti. The film looks as freshly minted as if it had just been released."

"Channel Jean Renoir through Luis Buñuel—voilà!—Jean Vigo. This, his only feature, renders the mundane magical, the sad humorous, and the flesh transcendent as it portrays young newlyweds and their life on a river barge. “All day long it’s either smooching or squabbling,” laments a companion. And so it is in this poignant, poetic paean to the beauty and tribulations of married love."

"I first read Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights (written by Charlotte’s sister Emily Bronte) when I was in college in California in the late 1960s. They are two of my favourite books because they’re just so brilliantly written. The beauty of both these classics is that they were fantastic when I was a teenager and they still appeal to me now as a 63-year-old woman."

"This was the first film we saw that felt like it spanned a lifetime, and I mean that in the best way. It blurs the lines of documentary with total access and beauty. The experience of living these two kids’ lives with them is something that can’t be shaken. The memories are implanted in your brain, and you’ll be happy you can’t forget them."

"I can’t overrate the radical beauty and revolutionary vision of these portraits. He was the first to focus on the psycho-idolatrous fans in the crowds at premieres, instead of the celebrities. Weegee the man, in words and image, is like a ham-handed rube and a carnival barker; it’s like watching an oaf sit down to play a perfect, mordant Bach chorale. What can I say?"

"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."