"This is the most terrifying film I’ve ever seen. It’s a story about a quiet young woman named Carol Ledoux who is a manicurist in London. As the story unfolds we see that she is more and more disturbed and strange. We learn that she is sexually obsessed and actually repulsed by sex at the same time. Her sister and her sister’s lover share an apartment with her, and she’s more and more disgusted by hearing their lovemaking every night. When they leave London to vacation in Italy, she barricades herself in the apartment, and as the days pass she becomes more and more insane. The story escalates, but I won’t tell you the ending. It would spoil it for anyone who hasn’t seen it. This film freaked me out so much that it was a long time before I could stay alone in my apartment—and I must admit, I’m still affected by it."

"I think I first heard it when it was in my parents’ record collection and there was a point where I’d learnt how to put a record on, I must have been about 8. At that point you’re going through the records and judging them by their covers and Innervisions has got this really engaging cover. I got really into Stevie Wonder when I was 16. My taste in music at that age was kind of mirroring my sister’s, but I remember lots of her friends and lots of us were listening to Stevie Wonder like it was a new discovery. We listened to Talking Book, Fulfillingness’ First Finale, Innvervisions and Music Of My Mind which I can’t believe were all made around the same time, this insane output. Now if I don’t know what I want to listen to, I’ll put on Stevie Wonder. It’s a simple, satisfying conclusion to that question."

"Earl Long, younger brother of Huey Long and a two-time governor of Louisiana, was one of the most colorful politicians in the South. By the time A.J. Liebling came to Louisiana in 1960 to write a profile of him for The New Yorker, Long had compiled a truly tumultuous political career. His addiction to betting on the horses was legendary, his affair with the stripper Blaze Starr had been the stuff of gossip columns for years and, most notably, he had been committed to an insane asylum (by his wife, “Miz Blanche”) while he was the sitting governor. Realizing he still held the reins of power even though incarcerated, he fired the head of the state hospital system, discharged himself from the asylum, and simply walked out. As Liebling’s profile became a series of articles and then finally a book (which I treasure), his regard for Long evolved from one of bemused contempt to respectful admiration for a wily politician."