"The story of Bobby Sands and the hunger strike he died from while imprisoned by the British government at the Maze prison in Northern Ireland in 1981 is not for the faint of heart. Michael Fassbender, as Sands, takes your heart nearly to the grave with him in a miraculously dedicated and brave performance. The politics of the strike, orchestrated to protest the unwillingness of Margaret Thatcher to recognize the IRA inmates as political prisoners, is a quiet backbeat to the action and is never demagogic. But like with all great films containing shattering performances, your feelings for the cause of the IRA at the hands of the British government circa 1981 cannot help but be brought into sharper focus. McQueen won the BAFTA Award for most promising new filmmaker for this film."

"For my mentor Roy Andersson, De Sica was someone who was looking at individuals within a social structure. His films were looking at societal problems in a very political way, with a very realistic style of shooting, but at the same time, they were very self-aware about their set-ups. I love the scene when the father and son go to a restaurant to spend the last of their money to eat something, and at another table is a different family, with a young boy who is looking at the son. I’ll never forget the way they look at each other and the look of the other boy, who is used to being in fancy restaurants eating pasta. It’s so touching and such a humanistic way of looking at things."

"I think it's one of my favourite records of the last 20 years. I hadn't really listened to them that much and we were going to work with Dave Sitek. While on our way to NY to record with him in 2008, I thought, "I should probably give them a proper listen". It slowly unveiled its power - it's very dense and like nothing else I've ever really heard. I think it's very unique in the way it was made and it feels like it's a distillation of those characters at that time in NY. The lyrics are incredible, I like that it's political - it's not blatant, there's no sloganeering, but it is politically charged. There's no lead track: the way that it's sequenced is off-kilter but in its way makes sense. It's just great."

"I read Dune because my son recommended it. He thought I would enjoy the dynastic element. I was looking for help with my novel, searching for a story that showed how to build a simple narrative within larger, socio-political themes. I didn’t find the simple narrative, but Dune left an indelible impression on me as a staggering work of science fiction. Herbert’s detailed and engrossing descriptions of life on planet Arrakis were so convincing, they left an actual stink on my palette. The spice mining water reclamation suits, for instance, are visions I could live without. As far as world-building goes, Dune is on my top-ten list of best examples. Plus, every time I think about it, I feel pride and warmth for my son"

"Confessions Of A Sex Kitten was so major. Eartha Kitt is a huge possibility idol for me. The thing about women like Eartha Kitt, Lena Horne, and Diahann Carroll — these black artists in the ’40s, ’50s, and ’60s — they were making a way out of no way. Eartha’s book, the first paragraph of it I was bawling. It’s just so deep! Her love life I can so relate to as a trans woman. She dated a lot of white men, who dated her privately. They would neverdate her openly or marry her. That’s something I can certainly relate to as a trans woman. She is brilliant and amazing and sexy and smart and political! She was blacklisted for like 10 years. Eartha Kitt is everything, may she rest in peace."

"Ives's 114 Songs has been a major source of inspiration for me (particularly for my 69 Love Songs and 50 Song Memoir). But that wasn't all he wrote: from 1887 to 1926 Ives wrote 193 songs, and here they all are on six CDs: lullabies, Christmas carols, German operetta emulations, mortal laments, parlor ballads, cowboy dirges, and even election-day commentary on 'Nov. 2, 1920 (An Election)', and 'Vote for Names! Names! Names!', of which Ives says, ""The [three] pianos represent three political candidates, each uttering his own 'hot air slogan'; the singer represents the disillusioned voter."" The texts come 80% from poets (Keats, Kipling, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and many anonymous sources) and 20% from Ives himself, whose aw-shucks Americana (as on 'Slugging A Vampire') and gleefully jarring harmonies keep the surprises genuinely surprising. "