“Like many other touchstones of twenty-first-century pop culture, 'The ...” — Rob Sheffield Quote

Like many other touchstones of twenty-first-century pop culture, 'The Sopranos' was hatched in the late Nineties, predicting a future that never arrived. It was designed for a decade that would be just like the Nineties, except more so, in an America that enjoyed seeing itself as smarter and braver and freer than ever before.

One of the billions of things I love about Beyonce: The harder she tries to come on crazy, the less crazy she sounds.

'American Horror' goes for a very specific kind of Seventies suburban downer ambience - 'Flowers in the Attic' paperbacks, Black Sabbath album covers and late-night flicks like 'Let's Scare Jessica to Death.' It even has 'Go Ask Alice'-era urban legends.

Do you believe in Madonna? Because Lady Gaga has got something to say about 'Express Yourself,' and she's turned Madonna's fourth-best single of 1989 into her own instant-classic club anthem, 'Born This Way.'

I don't have a smart phone. I didn't have one when I arrived in the U.S., and somehow life has continued. I teach at Stanford University, I launched a tech company - miraculously, it all seems to work without a phone!

Living in New York is like being at some terrible late-night party. You're tired, you've had a headache since you arrived, but you can't leave because then you'd miss the party.

When I arrived at Middlesex I was the only guy who'd been to public school and I got plenty of stick. But it wasn't held against me for long.

When I arrived at Chelsea, I was at Leicester and I had just won my first title with a club.