"I love all his books. I often talk about him and Jane Austen in the same breath. I think people are slightly mystified by that because superficially they’re such different writers. But they both have a very unsentimental approach to human nature. They can be profoundly moving without ever becoming mawkish."

"One of my favourite rewatches, a fantastic odyssey. It doesn't let up! I love stories that are just the passage of a group of people through a concentrated period of time and this is a strong dose of that. The gang costumes and the whole look of New York are incredible."

"You know what makes me so happy? I would watch it on channel 33 at 10:30 every night on Thursday with my mom. I cried when the whole season was over, but what made me so happy is that people my age and everyone else is just as obsessed"

"If every U.S. citizen could have the benefit of knowing Zinn’s collection of historical texts from a wide range of relatively known and unknown people throughout our country’s history, there would be a lot better quality in our current political class and in the style and substance of our governance."

"Godfather II, specifically number two. It was just what a gangster film should be. It was smart, it had great performances, and you travel through a lot of different worlds with these characters. You know, most people try to avoid family drama. [laughs] I just love the filmmaking in Godfather II."

"The best novel, surely, of a writer we love because he makes us question our favorite beliefs. His Aziz, Fielding, Adela, and the Anglo-Indian lot are the superb metaphors in the moral drama as well as people I seem to remember as if I had known and interacted with them."

"An 1849 story suite about a village on the coast of Maine. Its setting and characters are so vivid that I think of Dunnet Landing as a place I’ve been, where I’m very fond of the people. And the beauty of it is, I can go back there whenever I want."