"This is a Danish classic. As a cook in Scandinavia, reading this book makes you understand why Scandinavians have such a strange relationship with the act of pleasure. It makes you think about the impact religion has had on the enjoyment of things, particularly food. In other words, after I read this I understand why it can be so bleak here up in the Protestant north."

"Any collection of John Cheever’s short stories. I’m not a big fan of much of what passes itself off as literary fiction, finding it to be insipid, self-indulgent, plotless, and pointless. However, Cheever could write about everyday life and make it fascinating. His psychological insights are deft, never heavy-handed, and sometimes, as in his story “The Enormous Radio,” he veers into some really strange territory."

"This record is a gift that keeps on giving. I listened to the CD on a loop for months in my car. It’s unsuspecting: On first listen, it just sounded like one long song, but upon closer inspection, there’s a whole universe of small, strange moments, peaks and valleys. It’s a progressive concept album—both extremely heavy and lighthearted—with some beautiful sadness sprinkled in between."

"‘The Main Theme’ is one of the greatest pieces of music written for a movie. It’s so haunting, so beautiful, – full of pan flutes and stuff. It’s shattering y’know – like a Morricone theme. Oddly enough, ‘The Main Theme’ works really well, but they never play it over the opening credits. They play it over the middle and during the closing credits, which is very strange"

"I read this at the same time as I discovered her music. It’s very shocking, full of sexual abuse, drug addiction, violence, and racism, and opened my eyes to a lot of things I hadn’t known about or understood. It made me realize where songs like Strange Fruit had come from. The rawness of those songs had their roots in a devastating history of life experience."

"The ending takes a concern at the heart of cinema—the relationship between the real world and the director impulse—and turns it into a self-aware narrative climax, which opens the iris of the film dramatically. This is moving, strange, captivating stuff. Like an old friend once told me, in order for an organism to grow, it must be aware that it is alive."