Ethan Coen

“Every movie is a puzzle.”

“The characters are not the primary thing. The primary thing is the story and the plot, and the characters are an aspect of that.”

“We've never really been big on improvising. It's not the way we work.”

“The fun of it is to switch gears.”

“It's a little bit of a paradox, but it's true: the more specific you are, the more universal you are.”

“I don't think the movies are didactic. I don't think we have a message.”

“The audience is the last person we think about. We think about the story and the characters.”

“We tend to be interested in things that are a little bit off the beaten path.”

“It's hard to get a movie made. It's hard to get a good movie made.”

“We don't really know what the next story is. We have a lot of unfinished scripts.”

“We're not Luddites, but we're not enthusiasts for new technology. We're sort of neutral.”

“The violence is comical. It's not funny, but it's comical.”

“You don't want to be in a position where you're explaining things to the audience. You want them to experience it.”