Coen Quotes & Sayings

I'm not a very efficient filmmaker. There's a lot of guys, filmmakers like the Coen Brothers who shoot a whole movie and maybe don't use 12 setups. I'm in awe of people like that; I'm just not that guy. — Andrew Dominik

The mountain music ... is compelling music in its own right, harking back to a time when music was a part of everyday life and not something performed by celebrities. — Ethan Coen

Coen brothers movies are not always what life looks like but it's definitely what life feels like. — Oscar Isaac

What doesn't draw you into a Coen Bros. movie. It's amazing. I can't believe it! They're the Coen Bros. It's ridiculous. — Carey Mulligan

The point at which we worked with some of these actors, they weren't really stars yet. Nicolas Cage was not a big star when we did Raising Arizona. A lot of these people were also virtually unknown, too, when we worked with them first. — Joel Coen

I worked with the Coen brothers, which had been a dream of mine. — Domhnall Gleeson

Maybe there should be less of a mystique around making movies. I just don't think that there's any real mystery there. — Joel Coen

Barton Fink got written very quickly, in about three weeks. I don't know what that means. — Joel Coen

I began with small roles in successful movies like 'No Country For Old Men' by the Coen brothers; but it was 'The Last Exorcism' that changed my life: with what I earned, I left Texas and moved to Los Angeles. — Caleb Landry Jones

It's almost like a genre rule: Don't Open The Box. — Joel Coen

I really respect the Coen brothers as directors and as creative individuals and with the way that they handle the industry and the business side of things. — Allison Tolman

There is the moral spectrum in 'Fargo,' and you see it in other Coen brothers movies, where you have a very good character on one end and a very bad character on the other. — Noah Hawley

I love the Coen brothers. They're so brilliant, and they always surprise you in one way or another. 'A Serious Man' was awesome. I like stuff like that, that kind of throws you for a loop. It takes you on a journey that is unexpected. — Malin Akerman

The Coen Brothers, Peter Jackson, and Guillermo del Toro have really made something of themselves and impacted people. I'd love to work with them sometime, too. — Molly Quinn

Usually, I don't want to sit down and listen to the director gas on about his movie. I just can't actually imagine myself sitting down and having that much to say. — Joel Coen

It's a funny thing because you look at the careers of other filmmakers, and you see them sort of slow down, and you realize, maybe this becomes harder to do as you get older. That's sort of a cautionary thing. I hope it doesn't happen to me. — Joel Coen

Actions always have consequences! — Joel Coen

When the movie's done, you talk about either the score or source music over a particular scene, what might work. You just throw a piece of music over the scene, and we both listen to it. — Ethan Coen

Hold it right there. You men from the bank?" "You Wash's boy?" "Yessir and Daddy told me I'm to shoot whoever's from the bank." "Well, we ain't from the bank young feller." "Yessir, I'm also s'posed to shoot folks serving papers." "We ain't got no papers neither." "I nicked the census man." "Now there's a good boy. — Joel Coen

The Coen brothers are amazing; they're special. — Domhnall Gleeson

Dave Van Ronk, for those who don't know him - probably most don't know - was a folk singer. He's kind of the biggest person on the scene in 1961 in the folk revival in Greenwich Village, biggest person on the scene until Bob Dylan showed up. — Ethan Coen

And they're [Coen brothers] so smart, they're so witty, they have such an extraordinary way of communicating with an audience in a such a clean way - with just a few lines or just a gesture from a character, they say so much. — Angelina Jolie

The question is: Where would it get you if something that's a little bit ambiguous in the movie is made clear? It doesn't get you anywhere. — Joel Coen

I'd be perfectly happy never to have to answer anything again about how I work with Ethan, or whether we have arguments, or ... you know what I mean? I've been answering those questions for 20 years. I suppose it's interesting to people. — Joel Coen

We have an uncanny ability to make birds do what we want them to do. In Blood Simple there's a shot from the bumper of a car and it's going up this road and a huge flock of birds takes off at the perfect moment. — Joel Coen

And when you see it the first time you put the film together, the roughest cut, is when you want to go home and open up your veins and get in a warm tub and just go away. And then it gradually, maybe, works its way back, somewhere toward that spot you were at before. — Joel Coen

These things are hard to pin down. We work on a script a bit, then work on a different one. — Joel Coen

Well, ain't it a small world, spiritually speaking? Pete and Delmar just been baptized and saved. I guess I'm the only one that remains unaffiliated. — Joel Coen

We've been remarkably lucky in that we've been free to make the movies we've wanted to make the way we've wanted to make them. They've all been made for a price. — Joel Coen

I always say, I'm certain I changed 'Watchmen' less than the Coen brothers changed 'No Country for Old Men.' I'm certain of it. But you don't hear the Cormac McCarthy fans, like, up in arms about it. They should be. It's like an amazing Pulitzer Prize-winning book. — Zack Snyder

The movies I respond to are by guys like the Coen brothers and Edgar Wright, where it's hard to fit them into any one box. — Drew Goddard

When you do a writing job for a studio, one of the things you want to do is satisfy the expectations of your employer. That's a little bit different than when you sit down and write something to satisfy yourself, because then you're the employer. — Joel Coen

In the numbing hands of pretentious filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen, history does not repeat itself in any way whatsoever. — Rex Reed

My heroes are guys like Frank Capra and Elia Kazan and Coen brothers and Terry Gilliam, more so than a lot of bass players at this point in my life. So I've always been an old-film nut and have very much enjoyed doing videos over the years. — Les Claypool

I'm being photographed, worrying about my hair - and yet here I am, I've directed a feature film, why do I care about the way I look? Who cares? Does Tim Burton care? Does Joel Coen? — Nicole Holofcener

I guess there's a certain amount of poking fun at certain characters, but that's because there is something amusing about them or about the way they behave, so I guess you can say that that's poking fun at the character. But the character is your own invention, so who cares? — Joel Coen

I guess it beats throwing trash for a living. — Joel Coen

Sometimes, in certain stories, I think we know at the outset essentially what the tone is going to be, or it becomes important that we're groping toward some kind of story with a certain kind of tone that we both get somehow. But I don't think how that's combined with other elements is ever in any way overtly discussed. — Joel Coen

People that have been interested in our work for awhile ... those are the last people you want to disappoint. — Joel Coen

When we do a movie with the studios, they wouldn't be asking us to do it, I don't think, if it was a movie they wanted to get into themselves. What you see is what you get with us, so they let us do what we want to do. — Joel Coen

I feel like if you see five films not knowing who made them, you know which one is the Coen Brothers. — Hailee Steinfeld

If the material is challenging, it forces you to challenge yourself when handling it. — Joel Coen

All these directors, and I would include the Coen brothers and Quentin, have a very unique vision of what they want. They listen to ideas and make people feel like everyone is making the film. — Steve Buscemi

Everything the Coen brothers do is brilliant. — Jacki Weaver

Maybe our telling of the story wasn't as clear as it should have been, but I don't think that's true. In terms of understanding the story, it comes across. — Joel Coen

Critics are usually kinder to cheaper movies than to those they perceive to be big Hollywood releases. They cut you a lot more slack if you spend less money, which makes no sense. — Ethan Coen

As a director, I do very few takes, because I feel like you hire the right actor and they'll do the job right. And the directors that I've worked with and had the best luck with - Jason and [ Steven] Soderbergh and the Coen brothers - all have been that kind of director. — George Clooney

Making movies is never going to get better than working on a Coen brothers project. — Sam Elliott

There aren't reasons why you like this song or this piece of music, or don't like it. It's just, it's either right or wrong, you know? — Ethan Coen

The characters are the result of two things-first, we elaborate them into fairly well-defined people through their dialogue, then they happen all over again, when the actor interprets them. — Joel Coen

I don't believe in director's cuts where you make things longer. The coolest thing was when the Coen brothers did a director's cut of 'Blood Simple,' and they made it shorter. — Jason Reitman

I guess everything having to do with your background has some influence on how you tell stories but it's hard to parse how growing up in a Jewish community in Minnesota really affected it. — Joel Coen

Being non-commercial is never an ambition. Movies come together at different points for fortuitous reasons. You do them as you get the opportunity, as opposed to doing them when you choose to or design to. — Ethan Coen

We tend to do period stuff because it helps make it one step removed from boring everyday reality. — Ethan Coen

Our mother was a very religious and observant Jew, our father less so. She was kind of driving the religious education, so for us it was more a burden and an obligation when we were kids at that age. — Joel Coen

Look at the Coen brothers. All their minor characters are as interesting as their protagonists. If the smaller characters are well-written, the whole world of the film becomes enriched. It's not the size of the thing, but the detail. — Brendan Gleeson

We haven't had to defend anything to anybody. — Ethan Coen

Anything that is absurd I see as a Coen brothers' influence! The Coen brothers are my favorite people period. — Josh Brolin

It's just an impulse, in some actors. You want to make the audience like you. That's the aim of the exercise. — Ethan Coen

I'm crazy about the Coen brothers, I'm crazy about Sean Penn. I love the usual suspects like Susan Sarandon, Meryl Streep and people like that. — Jacki Weaver

When you watch a Coen brothers movie, it is always so certain about what it is trying to portray. That is their strength. The minute they write a word, they know how it will look on-screen. They are very purposeful, with no kind of mistakes. — Eric Fellner

I don't think every movie should be in 3D. I hope the Coen brothers don't do their next movie in 3D. I don't think they have any plans to. — Rob Letterman

I have a big affinity for the Coen Brothers. — Scott Rudin

It's more interesting for me as an audience member to see a movie about a loser. — Ethan Coen

There are movies that I love tonally, that I would love to emulate. Anything from Wes Anderson or the Coen brothers is right in my wheelhouse, as something that I would aspire to. I love that kind of indie, fun, colorful, funny, sweet, heartfelt but dark film. — Sam Huntington

Obviously I would love to work with all these great directors like the Coen Brothers, Tarantino. Robert Rodriguez is a dream director of mine. — Monica Raymund

Nobody knows anybody. Not that well. — Gabriel Byrne

Like any kind of writing, there are good days and frustrating days. But even frustrating days can be rewarding sometimes. — Ethan Coen

I've never really understood that. It's a funny thing; people sometimes accuse us of condescending to our characters somehow-that to me is kind of inexplicable. — Joel Coen

We create monsters and then we can't control them. — Joel Coen

I always admired Stanley Kubrick for the fact that he managed to beat the system somehow. I think he kind of had it all figured out. — Joel Coen

In America, even the critics - which is a pity - tend to genre-ize things. They have a hard time when genres get mixed. They want to categorize things. That's why I love Wes Anderson's films and the Coen Brothers, because you don't know what you're going to get, and very often you get something that you don't expect and that's just what a genre's not supposed to do. — Francis Ford Coppola

I always wished there was somebody like the Coen Brothers and they appeared. And so yeah, my favorite role that I've ever done was in The Man Who Wasn't There. That's my very favorite character I've ever played. — Billy Bob Thornton

I don't know of an actor that the Coen brothers would come to and say, "Hey, I've got a movie for you to be in, if you want to do it," that would say, "No." That's the truth. — George Clooney

I have never had feeling in my toes. My uncle, Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, once told me in confidence he had the same syndrome, leading me to believe it is genetic. — Ethan Coen

I like the absurd and the surreal: the Coen brothers, Bunuel, Kubrick. — Kevin McCloud

I couldn't have been happier with the relationship we had with Disney, it couldn't have been easier. — Joel Coen

You see a moral in them? Do we have morals? — Joel Coen

Other kinds of movie stars, it's a different thing, they bring their persona to the part and that's what people like to see, and they are not really transforming in terms of their character. — Joel Coen

We don't have any rules about how we depict violence, or how much violence is in a movie. It's a calibration on a case-by-case basis. — Joel Coen

I watched a lot of silent directors who were absolutely great like John Ford and Fritz Lang, Tod Browning, and also some very modern directors like The Coen Brothers. The directors take the freedom within their own movies to be melodramatic or funny when they chose to be. They do whatever they want and they don't care about the genre. — Michel Hazanavicius

My introduction to Woody Allen and to Ethan Coen was at the same time. On Broadway, I starred in a play called 'Relatively Speaking,' which was three one-act comedies, one of which was written by Ethan and one of which was by Woody. — Max Casella

The architecture of a story can be a little bit different if it's a true story. — Joel Coen

I mean, Joel talks to the actors more than I do and I probably do production stuff a little more than he does. — Ethan Coen

Yeah? Well, you know, that's just uh like, your opinion man.
~The Dude~ The Big Lebowski — Joel And Ethan Coen

I was always interested in movies the way everyone is interested. That is, I liked to go to the movies — Ethan Coen

You don't cast the animal, per se. You have an animal trainer who looks for several of them. That is a different experience than dealing with actors. That is just difficult. It is what you expect from an animal on the set. You just run a lot of film and prompt it to do the right thing, but sit through it doing all the wrong things first. It's just unbelievably boring, frustrating and painstaking to shoot. — Ethan Coen

Some people come out going, I don't get it. And I don't quite know what they're trying to get, what they're struggling for. We have had the reaction where people leave the movie sort of uncomfortable and befuddled. Although that wasn't our intention. — Joel Coen

I guess I much prefer the path of the contrarian: the guy who goes against the grain a bit. The careers of the people who I admire deeply - like the Coen brothers and Soderbergh - don't repeat themselves, and they make radically different films at times, and I think that's wonderful. — Joe Carnahan

It's so odd because I don't even know if I'm cut out for it, but being a movie star guy, I sort of end up gravitating toward the Coen brothers. That's one of the reasons my wife and I moved to L.A.: that however much of a pipe dream that would be, I moved to L.A. because I'd love to work with the Coen brothers. — Timothy Simons

I think when you watch the dailies, the film that you shoot every day, you're very excited by it and very optimistic about how it's going to work. — Joel Coen

The Coen brothers said something that helped me, When you put the book down, you have a certain feeling, a certain understanding. That's what they need to feel when they walk out of the theater. That's your job, to literally put this book on film, you won't make a good movie, you'll do no service to anyone. — Angelina Jolie

I am a fan of the Coen brothers. I'm not a fanatic. I'm a big admirer. They create unique worlds, and there is a real atmosphere to their films. Not everyone can get that. That's a massive part of their appeal: you can recognise them. Like all the great directors or artists, you know it when you see it. — Martin Freeman

We wouldn't have done it if we didn't think we could have fun with it. — Ethan Coen

Even if I went off to some other career, I hope I would still be doing Coen films. — Carter Burwell

I'm sick of them. I never want to see them again. Except Aros; he smells nice. And Rome; because he's so strong I'm pretty sure not even Rau can get past him. I don't need the others. Except Siret. I'm pretty sure he hates me, but he's really good at catching me like just before I face-plant into something. But the others, I don't need them. Not at all." I paused, my brow furrowing, my mouth pursing, and then I quickly blurted, "Except Coen and Yael. Coen is really good at making decisions, and if I leave out Yael he'll probably hunt me down and haunt me-"
"That's all of them," Emmy interrupted smoothly. — Jaymin Eve

It's a fool that looks for logic in the chambers of the human heart. — Joel Coen

Every frame of a Coen brothers movie is filled with history and meaning, and the deeper you go, the deeper you get. That's why their movies stand up particularly well to repeated viewing and investigation. — Oscar Isaac

You love all your characters, even the ridiculous ones. You have to on some level; they're your weird creations in some kind of way. I don't even know how you approach the process of conceiving the characters if in a sense you hated them. It's just absurd. — Joel Coen

I am a big fan of the Coen Brothers; I like their kind of absurd, dark approach. — Volker Bertelmann