"The best book I’ve ever received came from my sister. It was a special edition of The Secret World of Og, by Pierre Berton, a book our mother had read to my sister, brother and I one summer when we were children. The book is about four children who discover a secret passageway in their playhouse floor, leading to an underground world, Og. I must have dreamt about the story each night after she read it to us, because my memories of the book are as vivid and three-dimensional as if I had been one of the children in the story. My own children have read the edition my sister gave me, and they loved it, too. At our cottage, the access to the basement is through a door in the floor; it reminded my children and I so much of the book that we named the crawl space “Og.” One day, I hope to read this book to my grandchildren."

"This is a perfect record, It's heart on sleeve music, which is absolutely what I wanted to try to make on my album. Brazil is a very important place for me in terms of its music and culture; it's the first place I lived in where I felt I got pulled out of a bubble, and had to stand on my feet in a different culture to mine, and Jorge Ben is one of its greatest figures. He was so important in the bossa nova era, and a pivotal person in tropicalia – Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil looked up to him like a brother, as he was older. There's so much in that country's art that's about richness and magic, like the writing of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, as well. In many parts of England, you have to pretend to down nine pints to get into that frame of mind. That's probably why other cultures appeal to me."

"Earl Long, younger brother of Huey Long and a two-time governor of Louisiana, was one of the most colorful politicians in the South. By the time A.J. Liebling came to Louisiana in 1960 to write a profile of him for The New Yorker, Long had compiled a truly tumultuous political career. His addiction to betting on the horses was legendary, his affair with the stripper Blaze Starr had been the stuff of gossip columns for years and, most notably, he had been committed to an insane asylum (by his wife, “Miz Blanche”) while he was the sitting governor. Realizing he still held the reins of power even though incarcerated, he fired the head of the state hospital system, discharged himself from the asylum, and simply walked out. As Liebling’s profile became a series of articles and then finally a book (which I treasure), his regard for Long evolved from one of bemused contempt to respectful admiration for a wily politician."

"For obvious reasons, because I was big on Game of Thrones. I had seen The Station Agent about six months ago. “Let me check this out. Let me see what Tom’s about. I just worked with him; let me see what his work’s like.”Yo, I couldn’t take my eyes off the screen. Peter Dinklage, I mean, the way he carries that thing. Michelle Williams, Patricia Clarkson, and Bobby Cannavale? Just that cast alone, man. The way these people interacted together, you could tell this wasn’t words on paper. These were people living these lives, man. And I was like, “That is f—in’ acting right there.” I was pulling out my pad and pen and taking notes, brother. And then the way it ended, I was like, “Yeah. Yeah. Why not end it like that? It’s been real life through this whole thing. Why not end it right there?” I loved that. And that showed me right there that Tom’s not afraid at all"