"Right now I'm reading Pimp by Iceberg Slim. It's got me wanting to put my foot in a hoe's ass for real. I read it before but not very thoroughly so I'm reading it now because I've just got a Kindle. I grew up in Oakland where a lot of pimping and underage prostitution went on so I can relate. I can put myself in that position, but as a pimp. It's a fantasy."

"It’s a little bit of a Slumdog movie in a way of somebody coming from incredibly unlikely beginnings and climbing through a lot of incredibly hard challenges to get somewhere. As an actor you’re continually riding the waves of whether you’re in or out, getting work or not getting work, and Kazan was really a guy who was condemned into not working and looking to go deep into someplace and just live inside his art."

"I’d say Ed Wood; the Ed Wood movie I really love a lot. I love the idea of — I think it’s a great movie — but I identify with this kook who makes movies because he has to, and works with his friends. I don’t think Ed Wood is the worst director: His movies are personal, and you can’t take your eyes off them. [Laughs.] You know what I mean? There are way worse film directors."

"I like a lot of older movies, too. I’m a big Peter Sellers fan. So I love — The Party is one of my favorite damn movies of all time. [If] you’ve never seen The Party, man, thank me later, man. Thank me later. When I tell you this movie is fabulous, man — it’s classic Peter Sellers, man. I love Peter Sellers so much. He’s one of my favorite actors of all time."

"I’m a huge fan of the western genre, I really am. I grew up on a ranch in Wyoming; from a very early age I loved westerns. Read a lot of westerns. Went through a period when Louie L’Amour was something that I just read tons of, then sort of moved onto The Virginian, and then movies. I just totally loved that genre. Been a dream of mine to be a part of one."

"Rock films, or rock bands for that matter, were never looked at quite the same way after this film was released. Rob Reiner, er, Marty DiBergi gets the director credit, but somehow I feel the combined improvisational talent of Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer has an awful lot to do with the sublime content within. Yes, it’s funny, but it’s also as painful as any Bergman epic. Such is life."

"Even though his music isn’t a huge influence on Vampire Weekend, I’d say Expensive Shit was probably the first African record I listened to a lot. In my early teens, I was into punk rock, and looking at the album cover, it fit in with that aesthetic. I learned the backstory about Fela getting busted for drugs. It was my introduction not only to the music, but also to the political situation."

"When the Pixies were going, Joey and I got really into surf music. We would buy a lot of different tapes at truck stops. At some point we discovered Link Wray – that was pretty important. He wasn't an influence on us so much as a confirmation of what we already were: rough and loud and minimalist. With Link Wray it was like, Oh yeah, I totally get this. I am cut from the same cloth."