"A movie I like very much by Roberto Benigni. It’s a way of talking about a very serious matter through a comic form. A touching form. That was a new way of speaking of a moment in the history of humanity. Very painful. [Having worked with him on The Tiger and the Snow], Benigni is somebody who [writes] the script and he is somebody who [interprets] the script, but he will let you very free. He is not a dictator. Basically, he is a poet. Somebody who sees the world through his own eyes in a poetic way. [The Tiger and the Snow] is a movie I like because he wanted to talk about the war through his eyes, and it is a very honest movie. Very"

"That’s probably my favorite film right now. Drinking Buddies was very inspired by this movie. I just love how it managed to be a real successful mainstream Hollywood comedy but it’s really complicated. The characters in this film are married, they have children, they’re still talking about open sexual relationships, and doing drugs, it just… it feels real to me, is how it feels. I’m very impressed by it, not only for its sense of humor which I think is spot on, but also for its sort of willingness to dip into dramatic elements and to have central characters who are not necessarily likeable all the time, who are, you know, sort of confused and behaving in very human realistic ways."

"I’m sure this is on practically everyone’s list of favorites, but if I’m being totally honest I have to start here. I’ve made sequels and I know how hard they are to do well. The fact that this movie won Best Picture is a testament to how successfully Coppola topped his own masterpiece. The flashbacks are pure genius, and give it a completely different feel from the first movie. I’ve watched this film probably more than any other, and have learned so much from it. How a character can deliver key information in a wide master with his back to the camera… in very dim light? I can imagine the studio notes: “I can’t see who’s talking. Where’s the coverage?”"

" Complete faves, yeah. We’ve spent a lot of time together, even before we started the film — that’s how we knew we could work together, by comparing films that we liked and talking about them. And so, our first one’s The Breakfast Club by John Hughes. Obviously, in ParaNorman, we’re picking up on different high school stereotypes, and John Hughes touched on that so beautifully — especially in this movie. I think the most amazing thing about this film when you watch it is that it’s just pure character. There’s no spectacle or anything. When you watch it — you know, it was a mainstream, successful movie and everyone went to see it — but when you watch it, it’s almost like an art movie."

"“I really relate to the particular type of mental instability that Dostoyevsky describes in pretty much all of his work. A character starts talking, and things start getting out of control and become increasingly animated, intense and disturbing. It reads like an extreme version of how I feel whenever I have to interact with humans. The Idiot is probably my favourite of his works, because I love Nastasya Filipovna, Aglaya Ivanovna Epanchin, Rogozhin… I think a lot of my friends think I’m a bit like Nastasya! Anyway, it’s the most cartoonish and absurd of everything I’ve read by Dostoyevsky, and the best distillation of insanity as a virtue. A Baz Luhrmann-esque treatment of this book would make an incredible film.”"

"No one knows about them, but I've been talking about them for years: this is the one with 'Loud Green Song', 'Singing The Blues On Reds'. People associate me with straightahead rock'n'roll, but this is the stuff that I liked - I couldn't play it and I didn't try to play it. I don't know how I heard about Patto, but they seemed like irreverent guys. The singer, Mike Patto was also in Spooky Tooth and Boxer - you have to look at Boxer's album cover - and he died of cancer. Ollie Halsall was one of the best guitarists there was, left handed and he played unbelievably. I always liked songs better than I liked groups. Groups will let you down, but songs stand up on their own."