"Wide Sargasso Sea is inspired by Bronte’s classic Jane Eyre. The novel explores the life of Mrs Rochester, ‘the wild woman in the attic’, in 1830s Jamaica before she was brought to England by Mr Rochester. Jean Rhys wrote this book as a precursor to Jane Eyre because of her love for the Bronte novel. I saw the film adaptation of the book in the early 1990s and it inspired me to write the song of the same name on my album"

"We will switch gears completely, and I will say the original Sabrina with Audrey Hepburn, which really influenced my style. Just driving up with her trunks of luggage on the back of the car… it was just such a beautiful film. The clothing, I just was like, whoa. The elegance of it, the time period, the black-and-whiteness of it, the cast. It’s just one of those classic films that kind of etched a place in my aesthetics of style and elegance."

"Hey, storytellers: if you’re adapting a classic, this is film school 101. Never before or since (though I love Black Swan for trying) has anyone achieved what Powell and Pressburger did here, in terms of character and theme. Add the beautiful work of Jack Cardiff and you achieve something of which I, personally, can only hope to replicate a glimmer as a visual storyteller in comics and animation: Technicolor atmosphere that conveys immediate emotion and also has a lasting impact."

"The brilliant teacher I had for a Shakespeare seminar at Yale (Joel Dorius) asked us one day if we had an idea of what heaven, for us, would consist of. What you’d hope it would be. His own answer: “Just to sit in a screening room, watching Marcel Carné’s Children of Paradise projected repeatedly and endlessly throughout eternity.” Hard to argue with that when you see and resee this classic. Dorius’s version of heaven beats hell out of harps and angels."

"The Blueprint deserves its own shit. I still remember where I was at and where I bought the album from. I remember driving around in my mom’s car, because she had a little mini-system in her car. I remember playing this album to death, front to back. I only skipped one song, which was ‘Jigga That Nigga,’ but even that I used to play. So even the song I skipped I still know the lyrics to. It’s just a classic, hands down."

"This is classic Bruce Lee and defined the martial arts movie genre for generations to come. Bruce Lee has a power and presence that will never be equalled. He was the first and this will never change. Enter The Dragon was really the first martial arts movie to break out internationally. Bruce had a fluidity and a look that was unique and very exciting to watch. The movie itself was not high budget, but everyone knows it and they never forget it."

"Such a deceptively complex “teen film.” The incredible tableau of people in trees, in fields, and at crossroads can make you feel like you’re watching a dreamlike, heady laboratory study of the art of human scale. And an amazing depiction of classic American cars! If we all get to a point sometime in the future where seeing fossil fuels being guzzled by the gallon becomes grotesque and hard to watch, I’m sure that Dazed and Confused will still look incredible."