"Les Quatre cents coups, better known as The 400 Blows, a film that every man can relate to, because every man once was a boy. It also bears the historical importance of being among the first films of the Nouvelle Vague, along with Breathless. [The last shot] is one of the few freeze fames that I think really works in the history of film. When you do a freeze frame, you have the opportunity to find the exact shot that you want — no guessing. And [director Francois Truffaut] used it to the full effect."

"As anyone who has ever picked up a pair of knitting needles can attest to, knitting is a laborious love. When a pair of socks can take weeks to knit, and a blanket months (or even years), there’s something slightly sacrilegious about a book of shorts about knitting. But somehow these writers capture the essence of hours spent stitching, without the expected verbose prose. The third story written by Andre Dubus III is a particular favorite of mine — capturing both the historical and personal legacy of knitting in a short heartfelt gem."

"A life’s work may occupy shelf upon shelf, or all the genius may be distilled down to a concentrate of wisdom, and I would love to think that I’ve ever thought anything as clearly as Bishop has thought each of her poems. My favorite lines forever: It is like what we imagine knowledge to be: dark, salt, clear, moving, utterly free, drawn from the cold hard mouth of the world, derived from the rocky breasts forever, flowing and drawn, and since our knowledge is historical, flowing, and flown."