"It’s really Brene Brown’s body of work. Her work around vulnerability and shame, that has truly changed my life. Shame has been such a huge story in my life. As a black trans woman I’ve internalized a lot of shame around those identity groups. This book, and her entire body of work, has been crucial in getting me to rethink shame in my life and build shame resilience."

"They’re a 1970’s California band with great haircuts. My mother used to play me this song when we drove to school every day. It’s the only CD we had in the car, so I heard it every morning for two or three years on repeat. It reminds me of my childhood. The melodies in this song are so incredible, and I feel like they subconsciously inspired me a lot."

"This destroyed me. It’s about examining the choices in Levy’s life that lead her to a particular event documented in the book, but at the same time the book has a lot of joy in it. Many of female writers that I admire at the moment have that same stripped back, modernist style—a kind of reportage. It’s also liberating to write about something that awful in such bare, stark terms."

"I’d say Night of the Hunter. It’s an amazing film. That’s where the original “love” and “hate” tattoos on the hand came from. A lot of people don’t know that. You know, the good Christianity, the true Christianity, versus the false prophet thing that plays out in there, and the imagery. It’s an intense and beautiful film. And I love Robert Mitchum. I wish he’d come back to life"

"I was working at a funeral home when I found this novel. Being 14, I did a lot of thinking about death, and, conversely, how to live. Love in the Time of Cholera made me feel as if I were walking next to the characters as they laughed, loved, lived and died in a world filled with spirits. Márquez raised my consciousness by taking me gently into other realms."

"At the moment she’s in the news for all the wrong reasons [the 71-year-old Mitchell was recently hospitalised after being found unconscious at her LA home]. So I would like to get it on record that I’m a fan. The emotional content is great, but the sheer musicality of it all is amazing – it’s written on a dulcimer, one drone string, which really appeals to me a lot"

"Clint Eastwood is an inspiration to me as an actor. He, Robert Redford, and Michael Landon, might be three of my biggest influences as an actor. In each of those cases, it’s the fact that they play everything with a “less is more” style. There’s just something about that style that I try to tap into every now and then; it’s definitely my approach to a lot of things."