Into It: Neil Gaiman

... Reading? I'm three-quarters of the way through the new Gene Wolfe short-story collection, "Starwater Strains." I think he's probably the most interesting living American writer. You'll get people like [book reviewer] Michael Dirda at the Washington Post saying exactly the same thing. His short stories are an astonishing mixture of science-fiction, of fantasy, of horror - stories that are good, profound, and dangerous, and you're entirely not sure why. It's a cumulative effect.

... Listening to? I've been listening to a lot of a lady called Thea Gilmore. She's a young English singer-songwriter. She's done a bunch of albums now, each album is nothing like the one before, which I love. One is folky, one is a little more electronic, one is a little bit rough-and-tumble rock 'n' roll. I think she's the best lyricist since Elvis Costello - and for me, lyrics are really, really important.

... Watching? I am currently watching "Do Not Adjust Your Set," which is a children's show - it was my favorite children's show when I was seven. It stars [Monty Python's] Terry Jones, Michael Palin, Eric Idle ... and the second season had animation by Terry Gilliam. It starts off very stiffly and rapidly becomes a proto Python thing. In fact, there were a few places where I noticed gags they'd actually reused when they did Python.

• Gaiman's new novel, "Anansi Boys," came out last week. "Mirrormask," a new movie cowritten by Gaiman, is now in theaters.