"Not a new book by any measure, but I rediscovered it this year. I can't get through it—not once—without crying real tears, and I take that as a cue that love is a force, not just a feeling. This is a beautiful book that will break your heart and give you hope at the same time."

"I was an undergraduate art student when this film came out, and it was the reason I decided to apply to graduate film school. I find it hard to imagine the independent film movement without Stranger Than Paradise. It is entirely personal and impossible to copy —the kind of movie I hope for all the time."

"Jane Campion’s film is a portrait of an artist, and it’s filled with hope and transcendental beauty. It gave me, as a young and unformed viewer, direct access to a specific female imagination. To experience Janet Frame as she quite literally finds her voice is a thrilling pleasure that sneaks up on me and holds me captive."

"The Dardenne I had to choose. Their documentary realism was crazily influential and it gave contemporary film language a new urgency—but it can now actually seem mannered compared to how forceful it was when it first appeared. The most accessible Dardenne, about a troubled kid—suspenseful, emotionally overwhelming, and in the end a mystical experience about hope."

"I dig movies about con men, and I think it’s because I saw this in high school. It was bizarrely educational. I also love the way David Mamet makes characters talk; it is my sincere hope that Criterion eventually gets the rights to Glengarry Glen Ross and The Spanish Prisoner. I offer to write the liner notes for free."