"I first read this when I was a young girl, way before I had ever had any real romance of my own.... but Kathy’s speech to her maid Nellie about her love for Heathcliff always stayed with me: “Nelly, I AM Heathcliff—he’s always, always in my mind—not as a pleasure, any more then I am always a pleasure to myself—but, as my own being.” It’s still for me the most passionate and fatalistic novel about romantic love."

"Before there was “Wuthering Heights,” there was “Jane Eyre.” I will never forget reading the first chapter and the shock of recognition — the narrator is a young girl living with a family she is tangentially related to, and she longs for freedom. In time, she becomes independent (after a series of hardships which she endures stoically) all the while earning her living and finding love in the end. I love her for her plain, sturdy, sensible character. I identify with her."

"I pretty much could have picked any Kurosawa film. They’re all masterful. But the first time I saw Toshiro Mifune in Drunken Angel it was an absolute revelation: I want to do what that guy’s doing! He did it with style throughout his career, and I love him in all of his collaborations with Kurosawa (High and Low, Seven Samurai, Stray Dog, etc.), but his performance in this film, as a small-time gangster with tuberculosis, is badass. I love film noir."