"I guess my first favorite movie would be Chariots of Fire. I know it’s not just me because it won an Academy Award, so I know it’s pretty good. But it struck a chord with me. I think when I was younger I was very religious, and that aspect of the story appealed to me. Although not anymore, I still love it. I have a certain, I guess, fascination with that kind of period in England. Not that I know about it; I’m not a historian or anything. But just like it’s something so romantic about, you know, going to school there and in that atmosphere and that time. I mean, it was an awful time for a lot of people, but for the guys who got to go to Oxford and Cambridge. I don’t know. It’s cool. And then they go to the Olympics, and the characters are just so interesting, and winning. I mean obviously based on real people, and such fantastic acting, you know. Great direction. Art direction, and wardrobe, and all of that."

"’Something’ is probably the first Beatles song I listened to that I felt personally connected to. It’s not like any other Beatles song, although they have a lot of romantic songs, most of them are kind of playful too, but this has a seriousness about it. It reminds me more of an Elton John song or a Billy Joel song, it’s very lyrical and so relatable too. “I listened to it a lot when I had my first crush - I remember thinking, there’s ‘something’ about her but I don’t know what - I can’t pinpoint it, I just like her. It was my childhood crush song and I suppose it’s that way for a lot of people. It’s a first love song and a first dance song - it reminds me of weddings too. “I still get excited when I hear somebody cover it, I always want to hear new versions of it because it’s a song that you could do any arrangement of and it would always sound interesting."

"What is it about horny rich people misbehaving in the countryside that is just an endless source of cinematic gold? I love the way this film, whether wittingly or unwittingly, portrays the abjection of the desire and romantic practice of a man who seemingly has it all figured out. He’s in his last summer of freedom before marrying himself off, and he’s misbehaving with these teenage girls—but you don’t for a second disbelieve the subjectivity of these girls. In fact, you end up getting sucked into their relationships with him. This film gets under the skin and into the nooks and crannies of what we do when our passions are high and we’re very bored. It’s a little pervy, and we can question the age differences and the ethics of what’s going on sexually and romantically, but I think the film questions them as well, and we’re able to see strange desire from multiple angles. It just washes over you and you understand it. It’s very French in that way."

"I was always interested in classical music but not conventional classical. When I was in seventh grade I had a music theory teacher who was teaching me how to write music while playing me Mozart, Beethoven and Bach – the classic, romantic –styled composers and I got it. Actually, I didn’t get it. It was too simple, too predictable and I didn’t resonate with predictable music. What really pushed my buttons were things that were completely unpredictable, so when I went through college and finally heard Stravinsky, I thought he had dropped acid or something. This was a guy who for many years of life had composed relatively traditional music and then he wrote the ballets and they were monumental pieces of music for the Twentieth Century. They were pivotal pieces within a genre. Of course it’s impossible to mention Stravinsky without also mentioning some other composers like Varese, Ligeti and Berio who all really excited me. These guys all functioned on a different level, but Stravinsky…he had the biggest dick."