LitHub had a Q&A with George Saunders, which provided this gem ->
Which non-literary piece of culture—film, tv show, painting, song—could you not imagine your life without?
Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It comes out of a very smart place that is political and yet never forgets to entertain and self-lacerate and be silly. For me, a big breakthrough moment when I was able, in my first book, to somewhat reconcile my passionate love for this movie with my desire to “be literary.” What happened was, I saw that this distinction I’d been making between “entertainment” and “literature” was not meaningful, not at the highest levels, if we understand that the real goal is: communication of the urgent. The big scene, for me, was the scene where the king rides past two peasants.
“How do you know he’s a king?” asks one.
“He hasn’t got shit on him,” says the other.
Perfect.
Steve Weddle 