"I want to start off with a film you’ve probably seen called Mind Game, by Masaaki Yuasa. It’s a very interesting story. It’s a Japanese film; it’s not anime. It’s very western, actually. It came out in 2005, and critics panned it in Japan, and therefore the producers lost their nerve and shelved the film, which is very sad. I saw it at the Asian Film Festival, and I think you can see it online, but to me, it’s the Citizen Kane of animation. It is such an ambitious and visually unique film. It’s just full of action and full of crazy ideas and surrealism and humor and just beautiful, beautiful craftsmanship."

"The voice-over in Shock Corridor affected me deeply. It helped me realize that as a storyteller, you really have all the freedom in the world to tell the story the way you want to. There’s a line in here where an inmate wakes our hero in the middle of the night, chewing gum, to tell him that if you chew enough gum your mouth gets tired and your mind gets tired and then you don’t feel crazy, and he shoves gum in our hero’s mouth and then goes to sleep. Everyone is coping the best they can, madness is in all of us, ambition will take you down and don’t you forget it—how comforting"

"She's a later discovery. She's still alive – an amazing, iconic Italian pop singer from the late 1960s through the 70s and 80s, whom I discovered when I was dating a very handsome Italian man in Rome, driving around on the back of a scooter and listening to her recordings. I always identify her as the Bette Midler of Italy, she had a very similar fashion and look, this crazy curly red hair and amazing make-up. She also had this wild voice, and there's this glamorous European quality to her that she brings me right to when I need to get there, especially living in the United States. Mina, take me away!"

"My older sister and I watched this movie endlessly. We didn’t have a VCR so we had to rent one with the movie from the video store. My parents probably thought we were crazy for continuously renting the same movie…but thankfully they let us, and we loved it. Wonder, magic, fantasy, heroes, villains, and saving the day. That about sums up what I love most about movies. I love being transported to another place and living an adventure vicariously. Jim Henson, Frank Oz, and team were a wonder and a great gift to film and television. I’m sure this movie has helped foster creativity within me and a sense of wonder and possibility for greatness."

"A young John Hurt plays a bitter art school drop-out who forms his own fascist political movement, the Party of Dynamic Erection. It’s very proto-Withnail & I, and it’s not lost on me that George Harrison was involved in producing both Little Malcolm and Withnail. So it’s cool to think that my favorite Beatle helped make the best two movies about crazy assholes in trench coats screaming at each other in shitty apartments. Mike Leigh directed the original production of the play of Little Malcolm and I can also see how the Scrawdyke character may have informed him in creating Johnny from Naked, another misogynistic, visionary crackpot trying to assert his manhood."

"After Gone and Road Warrior is Pulp Fiction, which I consider a perfect movie. I consider it a pitch-perfect movie. I’ve gotten to the point now where I pray to not come across it while channel surfing because, if I see five frames of it, then I have to sit and watch the rest of it. I’m now up to something like 30 or 40 times I’ve seen it. I just love that movie and all its dimensions, its crazy story structure, Quentin’s just brilliant dialogue, and the kind of mix of style and atmosphere with these memorable, memorable characters. Pulp is definitely one [of my favorites], although anything Tarantino would be good with me."