The Gashlycrumb Tinies by Edward Gorey – “N is for Neville who died of ennui.” I remember someone saying they based their friendships on whether or not a person loved “Captain Corelli’s Mandolin”. A little melodramatic, don’t you think? But if I had to choose my friends by taste in books, The Gashlycrumb Tinies would be the book to do it.

Bill Henson – His photographs are dark and moody, nocturnal landscapes or studies of teenagers killing time. The subject matter is similar to that of Larry Clark, but without the sense of creepiness and exploitation that pervades Clark’s work. If anything, Henson’s photographs are mysterious and beautiful, occupying a space between O. Winston Link’s nocturnal railroad shots and Gregory Crewdson’s staged nightscapes. Search him out.

Olen Steinhauer – Olen and I keep missing each other in various parts of Eastern Europe, partly because I never stay in one place for long and he does. Most recently, I think he arrived in Budapest just after I’d been there, and of course, he’s still there. Anyway, Olen’s producing a remarkable series of books that span the second half of the twentieth century in a fictional Eastern European country. Look out for “The Bridge of Sighs”, “The Confession” and the rest of the series.

White Teeth by Zadie Smith – There is no such book, there is no such author.

The White Stripes – So I’m in the Eurostar terminal a couple of years back. There’s a Spanish family sitting opposite me with two attractive grown-up daughters, one of whom keeps looking over at me. Then she comes over and sits next to me, but I have The White Stripes playing so loudly through my walkman that my eyes are bleeding. She makes a quick exit, and gestures to her sister in a way that suggests she doesn’t like my taste in music. As it happens, they’re the only other people in the first class carriage. I walk along the carriage after lunch and all four of them are asleep, sprawled out in their seats with the buttons of their jeans and waistbands undone. I’m a little oiled so I find this pretty amusing. There’s no moral to this story, something I think Jack and Meg White would appreciate.

Stephen Crane – “A night on the sea in an open boat is a long night. As darkness settled finally, the shine of the light, lifting from the sea in the south, changed to full gold. On the northern horizon a new light appeared, a small bluish gleam on the edge of the waters. These two lights were the furniture of the world. Otherwise there was nothing but waves.”

Rachel Whiteread – I always understood what Whiteread was doing, but I don’t think I ever “got” it. Then one day I was killing a couple of hours before lunch, walking around Vienna, not paying much attention to where I was going, and stumbled into Judenplatz and her stunning Holocaust Memorial. The cast of a library, it’s a monument to lost knowledge and a lost culture, intensely powerful. As I stood there, a deranged man came into the square, shouted Heil Hitler as he saluted me, and jabbered away. My German isn’t great and he was talking a lot of gibberish, but I think he was under the impression that I was a high-ranking officer in the Wehrmacht.

Jim Jarmusch – He introduced me to Sreamin’ Jay Hawkins through “Stranger than Paradise”, he’s a huge fan of one of my childhood heroes, Lee Marvin, he’s friends with Tom Waits, makes a brilliant appearance in “Blue in the Face”, he directed “Dead Man”, “Mystery Train” and a whole load of other classics, and he’s got the wildest hair ever. Just thought I’d let you know.

Jane Austen – I know, everyone’s lining up to get behind Jane Austen nowadays, but hey, I still think she span a great yarn. And indeed, “Persuasion” is such a great yarn that I stole it and used it in “For the Dogs”.

The Shins – “just a glimpse of an ankle and I, react like it’s 1805” or “a modern girl, taken with thought, still prone to care, making tea in your underwear”. They write great songs anyway, but as with Leonard Cohen or Belle & Sebastian or Dar Williams, a great lyric goes a long way.

Graham Greene – I’ll tell you what I really liked about Graham Greene as I was growing up, the fact that he was so publicity shy. People had so little idea what he looked like that a man was able to successfully pass himself off as Greene for many years, securing invites to drinks and parties across the South of France. He’s not so widely read now, but he was a great writer, so maybe his time will come again.

Glen Baxter – “Uncle Frank would keep us amused for hours!”

The Emperor of Japan – We’re having dinner on a floating restaurant in Budapest. Rob tells us that Marta Sebestyen, the woman who sang the music in “The English Patient”, came around to sing for him and Lucia in the apartment last night. She’d originally intended to sing at the wedding itself but she was double-booked because the Emperor of Japan was in town. We think this sounds like a tall tale, but then a boat glides past and Rob says, there he is. Sure enough, it’s the Japanese Imperial party, looking pretty cool. We wave, they wave back, we continue with our meal. I’ve never seen “The English Patient” but I once opted for temporary brain death as a way of getting through “The Talented Mr. Ripley”.

Zoë Heller – I don’t get it. You have an intriguing story; why would a female middle-aged teacher have an affair with a fifteen year old boy? Not an easy story to tell, but surely worth the difficulties. It cries out to be told from the woman’s point of view, maybe even that of both protagonists. It’s full of opportunity. But Heller decides to tell the story from a third party’s point of view, making it a book about obsessive friendship. The affair isn’t even integral to the story – Sheba could just as easily be a shoplifter or a compulsive gambler. What I don’t get is that no one else seemed much bothered by this. If you use a device like this without actually exploring it, surely it becomes little more than titillation.

Kathryn Harrison – Now this writer, on the other hand… It’s not easy to get hold of “Exposure” now, the fictional book overshadowed by the rather more controversial “The Kiss” which revealed the autobiographical truth behind the earlier title. Try to get hold of it though, a stunning tale of a woman spiralling out of control.

Ulrich Schnauss – If the thought of electronic soundscapes isn’t for you, move on. If you like uplifting electronica or if you were ever into trance or euphoric house, this is where you need to be. Great for working to (if you’re a writer, probably not if you’re in bomb disposal), great for driving, great for just being relaxed and happy about the world.

Christopher Walken – Like one of my other favourite actors, Bill Murray, he occasionally looks like he’s in a different film to the rest of the cast, but when it all comes together, it’s a unique cinematic experience. I’ll watch a bad film if it’s got Walken in it, but he’s made plenty of great films too, and Abel Ferrara’s “King of New York” is up there at the top. As it happens, I once found myself in a crypt with a few other people, examining mummified corpses in open caskets (you know the kind of thing) and one of those other people was a German who not only looked just like Christopher Walken, he even had his mannerisms. I was meant to be looking at these 300 year old corpses, but I just couldn’t take my eyes off the Christopher Walken look-alike. Even his hair was the same!

David Mitchell – There are people who really like this kind of thing, and that’s great… variety, spice, life. Some people really like fireworks, too, but I’m with Aimee Mann on that one, a waste of gunpowder and sky.

Willy Ronis – What a guy! Even if you haven’t heard the name, you’ve seen his photographs. Perhaps “The Lovers of the Bastille” is one you’ll have seen, and possibly you thought it was by Robert Doisneau. Like Doisneau, his photographs capture France and beyond across the span of the last century. Ronis is less flashy somehow, and I think that makes his work more interesting.

Starter for Ten by David Nicholls – Okay, it helps if you know what University Challenge is all about, and perhaps it helps if you went to university in the 1980s, but the story’s pretty well universal, and there’s something else. I think the only book that’s made me laugh out loud in the last ten years was “The Restraint of Beasts” by Magnus Mills. Until now. Two exchanges in the middle of this book had me crying with laughter.

Ian McEwan – I suffer a lot from “wrong book” syndrome. I read something by a celebrated author, don’t rate it, then everyone tells me I read the wrong book. So I read “Atonement” thought it a curate’s egg and ultimately fraudulent, and then everyone tells me I should have read “The Cement Garden” or “Enduring Love”, but there are so many authors and so little time. As Moliere said, we die only once, and for so long! I saw a documentary about his latest book and it all sounded rather arid.

Richard Linklater – Slacker, Dazed and Confused, and of course, Before Sunrise/Before Sunset. Just the coolest director. For those who don’t know, Before Sunrise is the film in which two people, Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, meet on a train and decide to walk around Vienna together. Now, I’ve travelled a lot by train, and I’ve had a couple of encounters that were nearly as cool as that, and a whole load of near misses. One of those misses was with a girl who looked just like Julie Delpy. On that occasion, a supernaturally short Northern Irish Indian kind of messed things up, but he was a really nice guy so I can’t really hold it against him. Unless she was the one, in which case I’ll be miserable on and off for the rest of my life and haunt him for all eternity.

The Beach by Alex Garland – Looked at this book when it first came out and thought it looked dreadful, not least because I’ve always found the whole backpacking thing insufferably smug and pious. How wrong I was. I read it last year and it’s a great story. It also intrigued me as a writer because, if I’d written it, the book would have been half that length. There are plenty of sections that don’t advance the story or the characters, and yet it works somehow, and never drags. I know he’s found this a tough act to follow but thems the breaks.

Anselm Kiefer – A genius. No other way of putting it. And every time I see a ruined ancient city I can’t help but think of his updating of Lilith’s curse, “Grass will grow over your cities”.

Marcus Aurelius – Speaking of grass growing over cities. “Understand that your time has a limit set to it. Use it, then, to advance your enlightenment; or it will be gone, and never in your power again.” An amazing thinker, and in many ways, the opposite of Shelley’s Ozymandias, completely aware of his place in the grand scheme of things.

BEK – Or Bruce Eric Kaplan. He was one of the writers for “Seinfeld” but I first came to know him as a cartoonist whose work is featured regularly in The New Yorker. There are now a couple of books available, and I suppose if you like the Seinfeld humour, you’ll almost certainly get these. Inevitably featuring very flat people or pets, they capture the modern condition perfectly. My favourite shows an affluent but bored-looking mother saying to her little girl, “It’s such a nice day. Why don’t you go outside and make some money?” Anyway, don’t take my word for it. Neil Simon is also a big fan.

Amos Poe – He’s not a director who’ll have registered on a lot of radars, but he made an extraordinary film in the early 90s called “Triple Bogey on a Par Five Hole”. It’s a mock documentary set primarily on a luxury yacht in New York harbour, examining the story of a family whose parents were killed on a golf course. Something of a shaggy dog story, it’s a film that will appeal if you enjoyed “The Royal Tenenbaums”. Sadly, I don’t think it’s available on DVD but it’s an unusual and compelling piece of work.

The Awakening by Kate Chopin – A moving and important book that was lost for fifty years and very nearly forever. As a writer you occasionally read something that leaves you thinking, if only I could write something that beautiful. Well, there’s a section in the middle of this book that left me thinking just that.

Nick Drake – I know, I know, everyone rants about Nick Drake. I wouldn’t put him in my top ten music stars, but I’m writing about him here because he has a way of fitting the bill when you need him to. I was once a long way from home, spiritually as well as physically, on a coach travelling through mountains that were misty with rain. I was feeling pretty forlorn, and then I put “Five Leaves Left” on the walkman and it just seemed to sooth things away, so much so, that I even have happy memories of being lost in that rainy landscape. I featured a similar scene when I wrote “For the Dogs” and Ella (who has considerably more on her mind than I did) is travelling through an equally rainy landscape in the Swiss mountains.

Dod Proctor – The qualities of light and form in her paintings are striking, and yet hardly anyone knows who she is today. I’m not claiming that she was a major artist, but you have to wonder, if she’d been a man would she have been so neglected today? Certainly, there are British male artists from the same period who are nowhere near in the same league as her and yet are considerably better known.

Laura Lippman – I don’t read many crime books, but I was lucky enough to read “Every Secret Thing” earlier this year, the tale of two young girls accused of abducting and murdering a baby girl one hot summer day in Baltimore. A great book, it also serves as a master-class for how true literary fiction should be; full of insight into modern life, inhabited by complex and intriguing characters, but never forgetting that the reader should always feel utterly compelled to turn the page.

Jake Gyllenhaal – I went to see a play called “This is Our Youth” in London. It was a pretty good play, and a great evening, despite the fact that I was slightly wasted. We went to the Charlotte Street Hotel afterwards and had quail eggs. Anyway, the three stars of the play were Hayden Christensen (wooden, frankly, though maybe he was having an off night), Anna Paquin (looked great, performance was okay) and Jake Gyllenhaal, who simply electrified the stage every time he came on. It was a comedy, but I felt like we were watching a young Al Pacino, someone full of raw energy. I’ve since seen the mesmerizing “Donnie Darko” and he’s one of those actors that you imagine going on to greater things.

Claire Danes – Having said that… Claire Danes. She’s stunning, she’s the most talented actress of her generation, seems like a smart and interesting person, yet if we’re being honest, the highpoint of her career so far is still the superb “My So-Called Life”. Why is that? Hasn’t she been offered the right roles? Do people not know what to do with her? Does she look at the equally beautiful and talented Scarlett Johansson and wonder why she seems to be landing more interesting roles? I don’t know the answers. I’m just putting those questions out there.

Rachel Seiffert – She’s never written a novel. I know, “The Dark Room” was described as a novel and shortlisted for the Booker Prize, but it’s three short novellas. She’s an impressive writer though, and the middle of those three novellas in her first book is outstanding. I assume she will produce a full-length novel at some point, and when she does, I’ve no doubt it’ll be worth reading. I would say it’ll be worth a prize, but prizes are for flowers, not books.

Freshers by Kevin Sampson – I gather he has quite a following, and some of that following didn’t like “Freshers” as much as his other books. I was recommended it, wasn’t sure I’d like it, but gave it a go. And I loved it. A deeply involving and compelling read, it’s also interesting from a writer’s point of view in that it’s frighteningly current. There are references to music that will seem either dated of wilfully obscure within a few years, and I’d be interested to see if that will have an impact on the book’s shelf-life. Whatever, to write a book for now, for this moment, without even a casual glance toward posterity, is a brave and incredibly refreshing thing to do.

Rokia Traore – If you don’t like African music as a whole, this probably isn’t going to do it for you. She has the most stunning voice and sings fabulous songs, lyrical and haunting, the themes of which would appeal to my old friend Marcus Aurelius. “Finini” from the album “Mouneissa” is one of the most perfect songs I’ve ever heard. But like I said, if you don’t like African music, continue to live as you do.

Juzo Itami – I’m a big fan of Japanese culture, from the music of Susumu Yokota to the writing of Banana Yoshimoto and films from Kurosawa all the way through to “Battle Royale”. But the late Juzo Itami was a unique artist, creating a number of fascinating films. The one I’d urge everyone to watch is “Tampopo” which, as well as being a great film, also contains an hysterical scene of someone being saved from choking with the aid of a vacuum cleaner. In an excellent case of life imitating art, several years ago, someone in Japan saved a choking man in exactly the same way, having seen it done in this film. There’s also a scene involving lovers and the consumption of food that shows up “9.1/2 Weeks” for the puerile nonsense it was.

Stephen Chbosky – Another author who was recommended to me. I’ve just realized how many of the books I’m recommended are about people who are damaged; you think they’re trying to tell me something? Anyway, “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” was something of a cult hit in the US, but is hardly known in the UK, which is a shame. It’s much like a modern-day “Catcher in the Rye” (I’m reluctant to say that, because those words are normally reason enough to avoid a book) but it stands up completely on its own merit. It’s funny, touching, charming. Chbosky writes incredibly well, and the only shame is that he hasn’t, as far as I’m aware, written a second novel yet. Either way, this is a classic in the making. Oh, and on the subject of damaged people, I’d say “Freshers” (somewhere above) would be a good companion piece to this.

Byron and Balthus – One was accused of incest, the other was suspected of being a paedophile. The poet was guilty but under mitigating circumstances, and besides, he wrote such poems, and letters that seem completely fresh and topical, even now, and he was a laugh riot to be around. I’m pretty certain the painter wasn’t a paedophile, but his work is provocative and enchanting in equal parts. The link, incidentally, is that Balthus once lived in the Villa Diodati, which is where Byron and the Shelleys were staying during the wretched summer that produced both Frankenstein and one of the early vampire novels. The past and future are always out there, just as India is, or Mars.

Sufjan Stevens – Okay, now you’ve got to be in the right mood for this. It’s quiet, relaxed, contemplative. “Seven Swans” was one of my albums of 2004. Even I have my quiet moments.

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith – She wrote an obscure book about Dalmatians, and they recently made a film of this book, which I haven’t seen, even though it stars the gorgeous Romola Garai. Read the book. It’s a great romantic novel, openly following in the footsteps of Austen. And what’s more, written in California during the war, it’s also a love letter to England.

Almodovar – He seems to have dropped the Pedro, and I’m all for that. I remember seeing “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown” when it first came out and thinking it was the calling card of someone really interesting. I kept expecting a great film from him, and then it arrived in the form of “Talk to Her”. This is a film for which you need to employ the James Spader Test. No, he isn’t in it, but the test applies (i.e. if you think James Spader is a bit creepy and weird, you won’t like this film, if you think he’s a very cool actor and the only worthwhile thing ever to come out of the brat pack, you’ll love it).

Phellipe Haagensen – What do you mean, you haven’t heard of him? I was talking to a film exec in LA and we both agreed that the best thing in “City of God” was the actor playing Benny. It’s a brilliant film and his performance is the best thing in it. I’ve always liked South and Central American cinema and it’s good to see it gaining a wider audience with films like this and “Y Tu Mama Tambien”, but if there’s any justice, Haagensen should go on to be as widely known as the latter’s Gael Garcia Bernal.

Evelyn Waugh – Regret is a theme that’s threaded through my own work and I think it’s common to most of Waugh’s. Even the hysterical “Decline and Fall” has a hint of it. As it happens, I’ve always found those people who say you shouldn’t regret a thing absolutely ridiculous. I’m not saying it’s healthy to base your life upon regret, but it’s a driving force when it comes to the artistic impulse.

Edgar Reitz – Just imagine the situation; you’re a film director but you’re heavily in debt, your career is in ruins and the future looks very uncertain. The solution most of us would come up with is to make a low-budget film with the hope of winning some plaudits in a competition. When Reitz found himself in that position, the project he came up with was “Heimat”, an eleven part, eighteen-hour chronicle of Germany in the twentieth century. He got it made and it’s a triumph. Just as impressive and addictive was “Die Zweite Heimat” and amazingly, there’s a third on the way. “Heimat” is now available on DVD and I can’t recommend it highly enough.

Donna Tartt – Surely. Life. Is. Just. Too. Short.

Isabelle Eberhardt – A case in point, really. She led a fascinating life, wrote an intriguing novella, “The Oblivion Seekers”, and died tragically young in a flash flood in the desert.

Eric Rohmer – I like films in which nothing much seems to happen but happens in style. In a way, it’s reflective of my own life. Sure, there have been some dramatic moments and some hair-raising escapades (usually drink-fuelled), but the most significant times often fall precisely inside the bounds of an Eric Rohmer film. I particularly like his tales of the four seasons. Summer is the most obviously delightful, but “A Winter’s Tale” is quietly breathtaking. It’s a tale that’s laced with hope, a hope that the viewer feels is misplaced, but as a lengthy excerpt from a staging of Shakespeare’s play demonstrates, amazing things do sometimes happen.

Sarah Noel – I started collecting art when I was still at college. I bought several pieces from a ceramics exhibition in my final year, and I still have them, but I also loved some work in the same exhibition by Sarah and Anna Noel, who at that time worked together. Sadly, I knew my bank wouldn’t allow my overdraft to go any further so I didn’t buy. Skip to the present. I always treat myself to a piece of art when I finish a book, and when I finished my last book I stumbled upon a fabulous Sarah Noel ceramic of a “Horse and Rider”, a Celtic or Medieval lady riding on a wild white horse, suspended somewhere between two and three dimensions. It’s a light-box for the soul.

Lao Tzu – “In the pursuit of learning one knows more every day; in the pursuit of the way one does less every day. One does less and less until one does nothing at all, and when one does nothing at all there is nothing that is undone”.