The prolific American composer Nico Muhly, 44, has worked with both classical and pop musicians. His operas Two Boys (2011) and Marnie (2017) were commissioned by the English National Opera and later staged by the Metropolitan Opera, and he has collaborated with the likes of Sufjan Stevens, Björk and James Blake. For Marking Time at Sadler’s Wells, which premieres later this month, he is working with the choreographers Jules Cunningham, Maud LePladec and Michael Keegan-Dolan, and the Britten Sinfonia.

What I find fascinating about Alan Hollinghurst’s books is that he’s constantly operating in four or five different registers: the object he’s describing – in a way that’s almost cinematically accurate – is also imbued with this other sense of meaning. It will be a social history ingrained in the extension of someone's kitchen, or it will be something political noticed in the way the table is laid. Then there’s this constant fusillade of unbelievably fabulous language, which I'm always highlighting. This book traces a young man from childhood to an aborted attempt at graduating from Oxford to experimental theatre, through a series of complicated relationships with men. It’s heartbreaking and hilarious at the same time, filled with these unbelievable observations.

Cintra Wilson and Alan Hollinghurst are the two best prose stylists working in the English language at this moment in time. Cintra’s primary interest is in fashion, and she was a fashion writer for the New York Times for a long time. Every single human on this planet should read her novel, Colors Insulting to Nature – just read the first two chapters and see if your head doesn’t explode. Her Substack is great: a lot of it is about her life right now and observations she's making, and from time to time she republishes things she wrote back in the 00s. I cannot recommend enough that people read every word that this woman has written.

On her podcast, Debbie Millman interviews people – some are designers, some aren’t, many are artists. She's interviewed me, and I remember thinking the questions she asked indicated a depth of research that was almost terrifying. If something doesn't appear on a Wikipedia page now, people don't really ask you about it. But when you listen to her interview David Byrne or Ken Burns or Min Jin Lee, her eye is drawn towards detail: the thing that is a portal to the thing behind the thing. I will listen to her podcast even if I've never heard of the person, even if I don't particularly like the person, and I've never not learned something both fascinating and useful.

Angélique Kidjo is pure energy – the light bulb is never off. In concerts, no matter who else is performing, you always come away remembering Angélique and the way she commands a room: people are dancing all of a sudden, because the energy is so radiant. She covered the entirety of the Talking Heads’ Remain in Light a couple of years ago, with half of francophone West Africa playing the drums on it. What I love about it is that it's not just a cover: it's a reinterpretation and a radical celebration of the mood of the original through her own idioms. Her cover of Once in a Lifetime is literally uplifting, even when it feels like the universe is collapsing.

This restaurant in Shoreditch by Margot Henderson and Melanie Arnold defies description. It used to be a school, and it’s really small, but it's not like any other restaurant you can think of. It's really magical – you never quite know what's going to happen when you go again. The menu changes all the time, and it's always a simple construction: crispy lamb ribs and a little puntarelle salad, or cod’s roe on toast, or perfect little radishes, or a dish of clams and fennel. But there's a commitment to the ingredient – now everyone's doing this, but actually no one's doing it quite like that. It’s pure vibes and great, great food.