"I was immersed in jazz for a while. I had certainly been aware of it for years, particularly the electric Miles Davis stuff, but this was a period where I went back into it and listened to a lot of Thelonious Monk records. I really love those; they’re so spiky-sounding. There was a whole bunch of Miles Davis electric records that were just never released in this country. I think Columbia or CBS or whoever it was just decided, “We don't like this stuff. We’re not gonna release it.” So you’d have to get the Japanese version CD. But it’s just amazing stuff."

"If anyone comes to my house in the country and has never seen this film, I always show it. So, in a way, I am emulating — in that action — exactly Auntie Mame. It is a joyous, crazy cartoon of a movie that has a little bit of everything, but at the heart is this woman we’d have all loved to have known and have taken us under her wing. I also love wall-to-wall speaking in film, and you sure get a lot of dialogue in this one. And who could resist a catch phrase like “Life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death”!"

"“This book gives you a true picture of American world politics that we have not been told. While at consulting firm Chas T. Main, Perkins claims to have worked as an ‘economic hit man,’ cheating developing nations out of trillions by convincing their leaders to accept development loans that ultimately turned into massive debts. It took a lot of courage to write this book because the author, an economic strategist, reveals that he was involved in swindling countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. He is a very brave individual who has stood up to share the truth; my late husband, John, would have liked that."

"I have been collecting Criterion Collection DVDs almost as long as I have owned a DVD player,” writes Alex Ross Perry, the director of Impolex (2009), The Color Wheel (2011), and Listen Up Philip (2014). “These are not my top ten favorite films in the Criterion Collection but my top ten favorite Criterion Collection DVD purchases. This is virtually impossible. My entire apartment has pockets of Criterion DVDs everywhere, and I am forced to just go with my gut and pick ten that shaped my ideas of cinema, meant a lot to me, and I can’t imagine not owning and having access to whenever I desire"

"Still with the Italians, I’m sorry! With many things in life you’re there because there’s a cute girl around that you want to go out with and you end up finding magic. You end up not caring about the girl but wanting to stay there because of what you found. That happened with Amarcord to me. I really thought a lot about creating images and the connection that cinema had with theatre in a way. That film feels a little bit like theatre. I lived all my life watching theatre and it’s when I found the connection with what I was watching and could do in my life."

"Another film I love is The Power of One, and that became one of my favorite films because I actually got the chance to work with Armin Mueller-Stahl, who is amazing, and I was also doing a film in South Africa at the time. I turned 14 in South Africa and had learned all about Apartheid and the country and the history of it, so watching that film in South Africa was wild, and I felt a definite connection to it. And it’s one of those films that not everyone knows about; you say The Power of One and a lot of people go, “What? I’ve never seen that.”"

"I saw it when I was a young man in Philadelphia, and I became obsessed with R. Crumb. He reminded me a lot of my father—especially in the way he dealt with the weirdness of sexuality. And he was kind of depraved. Crumb is this beautiful portrait of this man teetering on the edge of madness, but Zwigoff makes him so sympathetic. Maryse Alberti does beautiful camera work that makes you feel like you’re in this guy’s world in a way that’s so intimate and lovely. After I saw it I spent all of my bar mitzvah money on Crumb comics, which was disappointing for my mother."

"And then for something light and fluffy I would have to say Trading Places (laughing). Hilarious. Light, and fun, and hilarious, and a lot of laughs. I had to throw one comedy in there. I remember the first time I saw it — I don’t remember exactly where I was; I was young — I think the first time I saw Trading Places I was 15 years old, 16 years old, something like that. Eddie Murphy was just in his comedic prime; I think he came off Saturday Night Live not long before that. It’s absolutely a great premise and really funny, really enjoyable. I just loved it."