"At a film festival conference a few decades past, I was asked by a solemn journalist which French director has had the most influence on me. I expressed undying appreciation of Truffaut, Godard, Renoir, but stated that the most accurate answer was that Jacques Tati left an indelible mark when I saw this film as a boy. The French hated that answer—Tati was out of favor at the time. Funny how that works. This film remains one of the most hilarious, affectionate, politely barbed creations. For me it’s a cinematic standard for human comedy."

"I was living a little bit of this story in real time, because the film came out while I was living on the border, reporting on drug trafficking in Northern Mexico for the Associated Press. (I was also dating the journalist consultant to the film, a reporter for the New York Times.) The filmmakers got it right. They captured the resignation that countless families caught in the narco racket feel: plata o plomo. Benicio del Toro is magnificent as a doomed local cop, and his performance is as understated and sure-footed as anything I’ve ever seen him in since."

"How is it possible that Franz Stangl, a kindly, unassuming, mild-mannered family man and policeman from the small Austrian city of Linz became the commandant of the Nazi death camp Treblinka, where he wore white riding breaches to oversee mass murders of Jews? Gitta Sereny conducts her months of interviews of him in prison—as well as interviews with his wife and acquaintances—with her customary decorum, intelligence, and respect. One of her many outstanding strengths as a journalist is that she is entirely committed to understanding her subjects rather than demonstrating that she and her readers are unassailably superior."

"OK, from now on these aren’t in any order. It’s the same with movies: I have my three favourite – Taxi Driver, Blow Out and Rio Bravo – and after that it depends on my mood. This is one of my favourite protest/folk albums. While Dylan was a poet Ochs was a musical journalist: He was a chronicler of his time, filled with humour and compassion. He’d write songs which would seem very black and white, and then , in the last verse, he’d say something which, like, completely shattered you. A song I love very much on this album is ‘Here’s To The State of Mississippi’ – Basically, it’s everything the movie Mississippi Burning should have been."