"Buñuel is my first deep love in cinema. He is the adult that pulled the plug on the human art of pretending. He blazes through the hypocrisy at the heart of our bourgeois lives mercilessly—no one is sacred, no ideal or moral is spared. He is perfectly modern, bold, and clear. I found myself laughing in joy and amazement. He understands human nature while refusing to sentimentalize it."

"One novel that I think will always be a personal favorite of mine is Room. The book is a force of nature: harrowing one moment, poignant the next. I can think of few books that so powerfully convey the lengths we will go to as parents to keep our children safe. And that voice? Brilliant. This is a book that gave me one whopper of an inferiority complex as a writer."

"Mutiny on the Bounty with Marlon Brando. After that I was like, “Man, I’m going to Hawaii or Tahiti and getting me one of them!” I mean, holy moly! [laughs] Just being out in nature like that and getting away from the hard, structured Victorian England, it’s almost like — if you look at it now — it’s like a guy going organic. [laughs] In multiple ways, I thought that was exciting."

"Ever since I read the Heart of Darkness for the first time — I really loved that book and loved the sort of question at the heart of that book, which is, “What is the true nature of the human species?” So Apocalypse Now is just an incredible adaptation of that concept and a movie that I never get tired of watching. There are so many interesting things in it."

"MASH. To me, MASH is the superb realization of [Robert] Altman. Amazing. Whether it’s the improvisational nature, the way he layers dialogue, the way that he has scenes that are alive on every level. The rebelliousness, the anarchy, the humor. You know, Donald Sutherland and Elliot Gould were just [great]. To me, it was sort of like the perfect realization of what he does, although McCabe & Mrs. Miller is another favorite."