"It’s incredibly moving, and a great example of how extreme stylization and artifice can be combined with pure, genuine feeling. That combination is so strange and so paradoxical, and every time I see the film I surrender to it. It’s one of those films you can watch again and again and it will always be young. I guess that’s what a masterpiece is."

"This is a book that found me. I read it the summer after college, right before moving to NYC and starting out on my own personal legend. The Alchemist has found me every time I’m about to embark on a new path, or during a major transition. I’ve read it each time, and every time there are even more treasures to discover."

"Sturges’s improbable, implausible, yet completely believable fairy tale about Hollywood, about filmmaking, in all of its nonsense and its life-changing glory. Sturges digs deep into farce, but on the way finds something deeply thoughtful and moving. It’s the film I turn to whenever I think my career is devoid of meaning. Joel McCrea transcends himself, and Veronica Lake was never better."