"I have such a linear brain, so I admire filmmakers like Nicolas Roeg who can make these incredible montages that tell a story more associatively. It doesn’t seem like a huge effort for him; that’s just the way his mind works. There’s this feeling throughout the movie that there were many different ways that it could have been put together. When we were making Meek’s Cutoff, there was a scene we shot in which a Native American goes on a dream quest, and the writer Jon Raymond and I rewatched this for inspiration."

"When I was starting to think about making my own films, it was always Lynne Ramsay who I would turn to. I think she is an incredible filmmaker and one of the greatest we’ve ever had in the UK. I would watch this film endlessly, amazed by the composition, the sound design, the naturalistic acting. It is also beautifully emotional. I still put it on in the background when I write, in the hope of some inspiration. I met her briefly at an awards party last year, and I was stupidly overexcited."

"Fellow physician Larry Dossey made a risky leap in 1985 by applying the new physics to medicine (the book’s foreword is by Tao of Physics-author Fritjof Capra). Mainstream medicine was still spooked and skeptical over the mind-body connection, and here was a doctor speculating on Bell’s Theorem and relativity, making connections between the quantum and the very basis of physiology. Seeing the human body burst into a cloud of subatomic particles thrilled me. No book has been more influential on my own writing career, and Dossey’s intellectual courage was an inspiration."

"My top four films are the ones I will be (or already have been) revisiting and pulling ideas, inspiration, and innovation from. “Under the Silver Lake” is undoubtably the movie of the year; it is the most (only?) unique attempt at reconsidering the rules of storytelling, both written and visual. Of course, it was “dumped” into only two theaters, given the tiniest sliver of support, and will have to work to find the audience it deserves. Nothing says “2019” to me more than an out-and-out gonzo masterpiece that most people probably don’t even know was released."

"My top four films are the ones I will be (or already have been) revisiting and pulling ideas, inspiration, and innovation from. “Under the Silver Lake” is undoubtably the movie of the year; it is the most (only?) unique attempt at reconsidering the rules of storytelling, both written and visual. Of course, it was “dumped” into only two theaters, given the tiniest sliver of support, and will have to work to find the audience it deserves. Nothing says “2019” to me more than an out-and-out gonzo masterpiece that most people probably don’t even know was released."

"My top four films are the ones I will be (or already have been) revisiting and pulling ideas, inspiration, and innovation from. “Under the Silver Lake” is undoubtably the movie of the year; it is the most (only?) unique attempt at reconsidering the rules of storytelling, both written and visual. Of course, it was “dumped” into only two theaters, given the tiniest sliver of support, and will have to work to find the audience it deserves. Nothing says “2019” to me more than an out-and-out gonzo masterpiece that most people probably don’t even know was released."

"My top four films are the ones I will be (or already have been) revisiting and pulling ideas, inspiration, and innovation from. “Under the Silver Lake” is undoubtably the movie of the year; it is the most (only?) unique attempt at reconsidering the rules of storytelling, both written and visual. Of course, it was “dumped” into only two theaters, given the tiniest sliver of support, and will have to work to find the audience it deserves. Nothing says “2019” to me more than an out-and-out gonzo masterpiece that most people probably don’t even know was released."